US Dollar Bounces Back From 3-week Low Against South African Rand

The US currency bounced back from early European session's 3-week low of 7.3031 against the South African rand during New York trading on Thursday. At 12:05 pm ET, the greenback advanced to 7.4000 versus the rand, compared to 7.4328 hit late New York Wednesday. Presently, the pair is trading near 7.3270.

Thursday, the Statistics South Africa said in a report that the mining production dropped 11.5% year-on-year in August, reflecting a 12.7% fall in non-gold production and a 2.9% drop in the gold production.

On a monthly basis, the mining production decreased a seasonally adjusted 5.8% in August. At the same time, gold and non-gold production dropped by 2.2% and 6.2%, respectively.

The Statistics South Africa also announced that the manufacturing production dropped 15% year-on-year in August, compared to the 13.5% fall in the previous month. Economists expected a decline of 11.5%.

On a monthly basis, manufacturing production decreased 2.8% in August, faster than the 1.3% growth expected by economists.