The South African rand, one of the best performing emergent market currencies in 2009 fueled by a commodities prices rally, extended its gains further today as a report published showed that the country’s economy returned to growth, adding attractiveness for the already winning rand this year.
The official quarterly report published today indicating that South Africa emerged from the worst recession in 17 years helping the rand to advance versus several currencies, since the country ended a crisis that reflected in 3 consecutive negative quarterly reports as the situation improved with World Cup roads and building constructions, manufacturing improved, and the demand for metallic commodities, specially gold and platinum which the South Africa is among the biggest world supplies, rose internationally, as different regions of the world also found its way out of recession accelerating the synergistic process of recovery for South Africa. Even if forecasts already expected the economy to grow, the 0.9 percent of the actual report surprised economists that suggested a rate of 0.5 percent.
The rebounding economic figures of South Africa are definitely adding confidence to traders willing to invest in the country, according to analysts. Even though the quarterly figures are positive, the main factor behind the rand’s strength this year still remains the demand for metallic commodities and
USD/ZAR traded at 7.4650 as of 13:39 GMT from a previous close yesterday of 7.4750.
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