JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand was steady on Wednesday, trading near a five-month high an hour before President Cyril Ramaphosa was set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump to try to improve relations.
At 1440 GMT the rand traded at 17.9150 against the dollar, near its previous close and not far from its strongest level since mid-December.
Ramaphosa will meet Trump in Washington from about 1530 GMT, according to South Africa’s presidency, to try to reset ties strained by Trump’s repeated criticism of South Africa.
The rand showed little reaction to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s third version of the national budget earlier in the day, after disagreements between coalition partners scuppered two previous versions.
“The market is probably more nervous of the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting than the budget given the tense state of US/SA relations,” said Rashaad Tayob, portfolio manager and macro strategist at Foord Asset Management.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut all financial aid to South Africa, expelled its ambassador and granted about 50 white South Africans refugee status having deemed them victims of racial discrimination, albeit without providing evidence.
South Africa’s inflation rose marginally in April due to higher food prices but remained below the central bank’s target range, statistics agency data showed on Wednesday, though like the budget there was no real market reaction.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange the Top-40 index was last up 0.9%.
The benchmark 2030 government bond was marginally weaker, with the yield up 2 basis points at 8.88%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Colleen Goko and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Sharon Singleton)
