Rand At 4-day Low Against Dollar As S. African Central Bank Retains Base Rate At 7%

The South African rand remained weaker against the US dollar on Tuesday morning in New York after the South African central bank announced its decision to retain its key policy rate for the third consecutive session.

The South African Reserve Bank kept its repurchase rate at 7% per annum, the new central bank governor Gill Marcus announced. The decision was in line with economists' expectations. The central bank had lowered the key policy rate by 50 basis points from 7.5% in August under its previous chief Tito Mboweni.

The rand that reached a 4-day low of 7.4825 against the US dollar around 7:30 am ET continued its losing streak in the succeeding trading hours. As of 10:00 am, the dollar-rand pair is quoted at 7.4577 and this may be compared to yesterday's close of 7.3505. A further downtrend may pull down the rand to its lowest level in more than 8 days.