S. African rand eases after trade data

The South African rand was slightly weaker against major currencies in late afternoon trade on Monday following the release of June trade data, which showed a wider-than-expected deficit.

The local unit was nonetheless range bound and expected to remain so ahead of the South African Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcement on interest rates on Thursday afternoon, said an I-Net Bridge report.

By 15:38 (1338 GMT), the rand was bid at 6.89 per U.S. dollar from Friday's close of 6.8665.

It was bid at 8.8185 to the euro from a previous 8.7599 and at 12.8874 against sterling from Friday's 12.7724.

Economists in South Africa are almost unanimous that the MPC will raise the repo rate by 50 basis points to 8 percent, said the report.

South Africa recorded a deficit of 4.219 billion rand for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in June after a deficit of 7.005 billion rand in May, according to Customs & Excise figures released on Monday.

Source: Xinhua