South African Rand Weakens Amid Global Energy and Inflation Concerns

The South African rand has weakened against major currencies as the Reserve Bank held key interest rates amid global energy and inflation concerns.

Expectations of a US interest rate hike continue to strengthen the dollar, triggering a surge in global bond yields that weighed on sentiment towards emerging-market currencies.

According to First National Bank (FNB), the rand traded at R16.82 against the dollar, R19.14 against the euro, and R22.39 against the British pound on Friday.

The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee left the repo rate unchanged at 7.0%, keeping the prime lending rate at 10.5%, despite inflation accelerating to 5.0% year-on-year in June.