The South African rand sank today on concerns that current account deficit widened after worker strikes have led to disruption of mining. Mining is an important part of South Africa’s economy and the problems in the sector have very strong negative impact.
Mines across South Africa suffer from worker unrest that disrupted supply of metals to the market, hurting the nation’s export-driven economy. Exports declined as much as 12.5 billion rand ($1.4 billion) in September, while platinum output fell to the lowest level in 11 years. South Africa’s current-account deficit widened to 6.4 percent of GDP, the highest in almost four years.
USD/ZAR climbed from 8.7983 to 8.8865 as of 15:48 GMT today, while its intraday low was at 8.7457.
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