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Johannesburg - The rand and government bonds held steady
against the dollar on Thursday ahead of a central bank interest rate decision
at 13:00 GMT, and a day after S&P downgraded its credit outlook for the
continent’s biggest economy.
The rand was trading at R7.6725 to the dollar at 06:46 GMT,
little-changed from Wednesday's New York close of R7.6760.
South Africa releases the February producer price index at
07:30 GMT and the Reserve Bank announces its decision on interest rates later
this afternoon.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expect February producer
price inflation to brake to 8% from 8.9% the previous month, while the repo
rate is seen unchanged at historical lows of 5.5%.
“It has been fairly quite ahead of PPI and the repo rate
later today. We will look for important comments to drive the market,” said a
Johannesburg trader.
The rand slipped on Wednesday after the S&P outlook
downgrade, which was based on concerns about sluggish growth over the
longer-term feeding putting pressure on the budget and hitting the government
plans to trim its budget deficit.
Yields on the two main benchmark government bonds were up
just one basis points, with the 2015 yield at 6.81% and that on the 2026 note
at 8.47%.
The stock market opened a shade lower, with the Johannesburg bourse’s blue-chip Top 40 - (Tradeable) [JSE:J200] index down 0.2% shortly after the 07:00 GMT start of trade.
