JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand was little changed on Friday, after the release of a key U.S. inflation reading and a flurry of local economic data. At 1415 GMT, the rand traded at 18.465 against the dollar, near its previous close.
Trade in the South African currency has been volatile in recent sessions amid local budget disputes and uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.
The dollar was last down 0.07% against a basket of currencies.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, increased 0.3% in January, in line with economists’ prediction, after advancing by an unrevised 0.3% in December.
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of 16.42 billion rand ($889.45 million) in January, revenue service figures showed. The budget deficit came in at 62.68 billion rand in the same month, according to National Treasury data.
Central bank data earlier showed South Africa’s M3 money supply growth last month was at 7.10%, up from 6.71% in December. Credit growth for January stood at 4.59%, from 3.83% in the previous month.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the blue-chip Top-40 index last traded about 1.1% lower.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was weaker, with the yield up 6 basis points at 9.14%.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alex Richardson)
