Dollar remains volatile ahead of Biden’s inauguration

The dollar has remained volatile ahead of the inauguration of US President elect Joe Biden on Wednesday.

This has weakened slightly a basket of currencies in recent days -including the rand which has seen a slight decrease despite recording gains over the last two months.

South Africa’s rand also fell on Monday, in line with other emerging markets, as a spike in global coronavirus cases curbed appetite for risk-driven assets.

This week investors will look to a slew of economic data- including the expected interest rate announcement by the Reserve Bank on Thursday.

Economists expect rates to be kept on hold for much longer.

Investors will also be looking for clues on the health of the domestic economy in the last quarter of 2020.

SARB keeps repo-rate unchanged at 3,5%

In November 2020, the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the repo- rate unchanged at 3,5%.

Full statement below:

The Bank forecast inflation to average 3.2% in 2020.

Growth is projected to contract by 8.1% in 2020.

In the video below, the SA Reserve Bank announces interest rate decision:

[embedded content]

Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)