JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand weakened on Monday, with the central bank’s interest rate decision likely to be the highlight this week.
At 1533 GMT, the rand traded at 17.86 against the dollar, about 0.2% weaker than its previous close.
The South African Reserve Bank will announce its monetary policy decision on Thursday after pausing a rate-cutting cycle in March because of risks from U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war and domestic budget disputes.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the bank to restart its rate cuts, trimming its repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.25%.
Inflation is well-contained, staying below the bank’s 3%-6% target range at 2.8% year-on-year in April.
There had been speculation that the finance minister would announce a lower inflation target in last week’s budget, but the absence of any such announcement in his speech could encourage the SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee to ease policy.
Other local economic data releases this week include a leading business cycle indicator on Tuesday, producer inflation on Thursday, and credit, trade and budget figures on Friday.
On the stock market, the Top-40 index closed about 0.2% higher.
The benchmark 2030 government bond was marginally weaker, as the yield fell 0.5 basis point to 8.89%.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov with additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya;Editing by Alexander Winning, Helen Popper and Rod Nickel)
