JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand was softer on Wednesday as weak U.S. economic data and uncertainty about U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff implementation helped the dollar to edge up from recent lows.
At 1506 GMT, the rand traded at 18.4125 against the U.S. dollar, about 0.1% weaker than its previous close.
The dollar gained about 0.3% against a basket of currencies.
On Tuesday, signs of deceleration in the U.S. economy and concerns about the impact of U.S. policy sent investors searching for refuge in safe-haven assets.
Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand tends to take direction from global drivers in addition to local factors.
Domestic data on Wednesday showed that South African consumer inflation edged up in January in the first release since the statistics agency updated its consumer price basket, but the headline rate remained near the bottom of the central bank’s target range.
Inflation rose to 3.2% year on year in January from 3.0% in December, within the South African Reserve Bank’s target range of 3% to 6%.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Top-40 index closed about 0.7% up.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was stronger, with the yield down 4 basis points to 9.025%.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Tannur Anders, Editing by Bhargav Acharya, Subhranshu Sahu and Jane Merriman)
