Johannesburg – The domestic currency market was little changed at midday on Monday‚ in anticipation of the monetary policy committee (MPC) announcement later this week.
“We expect that the MPC will keep rates on hold this week‚ leaving the repo unchanged at 5.0%‚” said Standard Bank economist Bruce Donald in a note. “No move by the MPC should be viewed as currency market supportive‚” he said.
At 11.19am‚ the rand was bid at R8.8799 to the US dollar from R8.8757 at Friday’s close.
The local currency was bid at R11.8185 to the euro from its previous close of R11.8247 and at R14.0889 against sterling from R14.0576 before.
The euro was bid at $1.3324 from Friday’s close of $1.3316.
“Although the Reserve Bank does not target the exchange rate‚ neither via direct intervention nor interest rate adjustments‚ it is mindful of the prevailing fragility in the balance of payments‚” said Donald. - I-Net Bridge