Rand down 4% over week

A busy week for central banks has seen the rand slide nearly 4% from under R13 to the dollar on Monday to R13.44 to the dollar on Friday morning.

The rand was trading at R15.55 per euro and R17.81 per pound at 7am.

Bank of Japan held its interest rate at minus 0.1% as expected on Friday at 5am Johannesburg time.

The Japanese central bank’s key short-term interest rate has been -0.1% since January 2016.

Japan is one of three countries where central banks have responded to deflation by setting their interest rates at less than zero. Sweden’s Riksbank has set its interest rate to -0.5% and Switzerland’s central bank charges -0.75%.

The European Central Bank held its interest rate at zero on Thursday, a level it had kept since March 2016.

The country with the highest central bank rate at the moment is Turkey at 17.75%, followed by Mexico at 7.5% and Russia at 7.25%.

SA, Brazil and Indonesia tie in fourth place with central bank interest rates of 6.5%.

Fresh tariff threats from US President Donald Trump sent both mainland China’s Shenzhen and Shanghai composite indices down 1%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.13%.

The only JSE-listed company diarised to release results on Friday is small cap staffing group Primeserv.

It said on April 25 it expected to report headline earnings per share for the year to end-March grew by up to 23%.

Source: businesslive.co.za