Despite rising commodity prices boosting currencies like the Rand overnight, the South African asset slipped against the Pound as the British currency gathered support from a variety of factors.
At the current exchange rate 1 Pound will purchase 15.0798 South African Rand as of 10:35 GMT
As the week began the Pound continued to trade strongly against several of its peers in the aftermath of last week’s minutes from the latest Bank of England policy meeting. Now, the long awaited birth of Prince-undecided-Cambridge, coupled with the expectation of positive UK growth data being released on Thursday, has seen the Pound consolidate gains and remain trading above 15 Rand per Pound.
Economists have forecast that the GDP data will show that the UK economy expanded by 0.6 per cent in the second quarter of the year following growth of 0.3 per cent in the first.
The GBP/ZAR exchange rate hit a high of 15.0769 Rand per Pound
However, if the actual figure should beat expectations the Rand could decline further against its UK counterpart.
Conversely, the Rand has put in a solid performance against the US Dollar prior to the publication of Wednesday’s South African inflation data.
As the local session got underway the Rand held on to recent gains recorded against a broadly softening US Dollar.
During North American trading worse-than-anticipated US housing data supported the case for the Federal Reserve sticking with its current level of asset purchases for some time to come, which saw the ‘Greenback’ soften and emerging-marker currencies like the Rand gain.
Meanwhile, the Rand was bolstered by the news that the Reserve Bank of South Africa’s composite leading business indicator climbed again in May, up by 1.9 per cent year-on-year following April’s year-on-year advance of 1.3 per cent. Month-on-month, the gauge fell 0.5 per cent.
Additional movement in the USD/ZAR pairing could occur as a result of today’s US house price index, while GBP/ZAR fluctuations are likely to remain limited ahead of Thursday’s UK GDP.
Current South African (ZAR) Exchange Rates
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The US Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 9.8050 >
The Pound Sterling/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 15.0769 >
The Euro/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 12.9413 >
The Australian Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 9.0857 >
The New Zealand Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently in the region of 7.8173 >
The Canadian Dollar/South African Rand Exchange Rate is currently trading in the region of 9.4927 >
(Correct as of 10:35 GMT)
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