Rand hits R13.85 to the dollar

The rand’s continued strength against the dollar saw it reach R13.84 to the greenback in late afternoon trade on Tuesday afternoon.

This is the strongest it has been since February 25, 2019, and comes after it hit a high of R20 to the dollar on April 24, 2020.

The rand’s rise follows the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) maintaining the repo rate at 3.5% but having a “hawkish tone” noted Nedbank in its weekly economic monitor.

In recent times the rand has not only strengthened against the dollar, said Nedbank; over the week to end May 21, it rose 0.9% against the euro and 0.8% against the pound.

The bank pointed out that this has been a trend for a while.

“Over the past four weeks and on a year-to-date basis, the rand has reaped reasonable gains against all the above currencies.”