South African Rand Slides From 10-day High Against Greenback

After hitting a 10-day high of 7.5314 by about 9:45 am ET, the South African rand edged down against its US counterpart in New York afternoon deals on Thursday. At present, the rand is trading near 1.5836 versus the greenback, compared to 7.6138 hit late New York Wednesday.

South Africa's manufacturing output growth slowed in May from the previous month. A report by the Statistics South Africa showed today, the manufacturing production increased 7.9% on an annual basis in May, slower than a 8.6% growth in the previous month. Production increased for the sixth successive month. Economists' had expected an increase of 8.3%. A year earlier, output decreased 17.3%.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the physical volume of manufacturing production index rose 0.3% month-on-month in May, larger than a 0.1% growth expected by economists'. In the March to May period, manufacturing output increased 1% compared to the previous three months.