The South African rand slumped against the US dollar today to the lowest level this year as slower-than-expected growth of consumer prices triggered speculations that the nation’s central bank would refrain from raising interest rates.
South Africa’s inflations accelerated to 6.1 percent in April from 6 percent in March. That was the first increase in three months, which is not bad, but still below analysts’ expectations of 6.2 percent growth. The worse-than-expected data prompted speculation that the South African Reserve Bank would keep its key rate at 5.5 percent tomorrow.
USD/ZAR climbed from 8.3180 to 8.4450 as of 14:53 GMT today, while the daily high of 8.4590 was the highest since November 25.
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