Rand Weakens with Commodities on US Growth Forecast

The South African rand fell today for the second day as commodities weakened after the Federal Reserve slashed its US growth forecast.

The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of raw materials fell for the first day in three and gold and platinum, which makes up 20 percent of the South African exports, dropped. The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index, the nation’s benchmark stock index, went down 0.8 percent. The Fed estimated this year’s growth to be 2.7 percent to 2.9 percent, compared to the April forecast of 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent.

USD/ZAR rose from 6.7610 to 6.8220 today as of 10:47 GMT.

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