By Mark Ogagan
The South African Rand slumped to its weakest in well over a year on Monday and local stocks extended their recent slide as global recession fears mounted over US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
At 0815 GMT, the rand traded at 19.4025 against the dollar, down 1.5% on Friday’s closing level after earlier touching its weakest since October 2023.
Trump has shown no signs of backing away from his tariff plans, and investors worldwide were pouring into “safe-haven” currencies like the yen and Swiss franc on Monday. The rand is highly sensitive to risk and tends to be dumped at times of global market uncertainty.
Another factor behind the Rand’s recent plunge – it lost more than 3% against the dollar last week – is local politics.
The two biggest political parties in South Africa’s government, the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA), have clashed over the national budget, and prospects of the DA exiting or being forced out of the coalition has investors worried.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was down 5% at one stage before paring losses to trade down about 3%.
The benchmark 2030 government bond fell in early deals, as the yield rose 8 basis points to 9.49%.
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