South African Rand Advances Against Dollar

The South African rand traded higher against the US dollar in New York afternoon deals on Thursday. The rand climbed to a 5 1/2 -month high of 7.2250 versus the greenback at about 3:20 pm ET, which may be compared to Wednesday's closing value of 7.2858. The South African currency has been in an upward channel against the dollar for the past 7 days.

South Africa's fiscal 2010 budget deficit is estimated at 6.8% of gross domestic product, smaller than 7.3% projected in February.

The country's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday that the Revenue Service expects to collect 648 billion rand in taxes in the 2010-11 financial year. South Africa collected 598.5 billion rand in the 2009-10 financial year. This figure is 8.1 billion rand more than the revised estimate announced in the February 2010 Budget and about 60.8 billion rand less than the initial printed estimate of February 2009.

South Africa's seasonally adjusted purchasing managers index dropped to 55.6 in March from February's near three-year high of 60.4, a survey conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research and Kagiso Securities revealed today.