Greenback Slides To 5-month Low Versus South African Rand

Against its South African counterpart, the US currency declined further in New York afternoon deals on Wednesday. At 1:35 pm ET, the greenback dropped to a 5-month low of 7.2440 versus the rand, which may be compared to yesterday's closing value of 7.3574. At present, the pair is trading at 7.3113.

Today, the Statistics South Africa announced that the retail sales at constant prices dropped 1.7% on an annual basis in January, compared to the 3.8% decline in the previous month. Economists were looking for a decrease of 2.4%. A year ago, retail sales were up 0.9%.

For the November to January period, retail sales slipped 4.1% compared to the same period of the previous year.

The Statistics South Africa also announced that the wholesale sales at constant prices dropped 11.2% year-on-year in January, compared to the 6.4% fall in the previous month. A year earlier, wholesales sales were down 3.5%. On a monthly basis, wholesale sales decreased 7.8% in January.