The rand continued its winning ways on Monday morning, touching levels not seen since early 2015.
Positive sentiment towards SA was the recurring theme.
Foreigners were net buyers of local bonds to the tune of R12.3bn over the past week, helping the momentum in the rand, which acts a buffer against inflation.
With inflation now close to the mid-point of the targeted 3%-6% target, some economists expect the Reserve Bank to resume its rate-cutting cycle as early as March when its monetary policy committee is scheduled to meet.
Markets and economists generally welcomed last week’s budget, which still sketched a worrisome picture of the country’s finances, but things were a lot better than when the medium-term budget policy statement was tabled.
“The trend continues unabated it seems and a slight dollar recovery last week has done nothing to dent this,” Standard Bank trader Warrick Butler said in an e-mailed note, referring to the rally in the rand.
Since at least December, the rand has outperformed major currencies in both developed and emerging markets.
At 9.44am, the rand was at R11.5214 to the dollar from R11.5645, R14.2084 to the euro from R14.2148 and at R16.1826 to the pound from R16.1769
The euro was at $1.2231 from $1.2293.
BDL