Economic news of the week: The future looks bleak for the rand

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In this edition of the Business Day Spotlight, we on the progressive of the South African Rand in global currency markets.

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined Nolan Wapenaar, head of fixed income at investments house, Anchor Capital and Jameel Ahmad, global head for currency strategy and market research at financial markets specialist, FXTM.

In the first part, Wapenaar joins us on the line to give a status update on the local currency. He says 2019 ended with a bull market for emerging market currencies which benefitted the Rand. This positive sentiment was driven by easing relations between Washington and Beijing, together with revelations around Brexit and the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

In the second part of the discussion, Ahmad joins us on the line from London to give an international view of the Rand. He says the Rand has not had a good start to the year, having been one of the worst performers against the “Greenback.” Only Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Brazil have had worse performance against the US Dollar, Ahmad says.

He highlights the impact of the coronavirus, global trade, commodity prices as factors to keep an eye on for the year ahead.
21 Feb 2020 English South Africa Business News · News

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