USD/ZAR: Rand advances to 12-week high ahead of SA mining data

Key points

The South African Rand advanced for a fifth straight trading day on Thursday against the US Dollar, reaching a 12-week peak, ahead of South Africa mining production data release.

Yesterday the South African currency surged almost 2% against the greenback as global risk sentiment improved following the release of US CPI inflation data.

Annual headline CPI inflation in the US was reported to have slowed to 3% in June, while annual core CPI inflation – to 4.8%. market players considered the data as an indication that the Federal Reserve might complete its rate-hiking cycle this month.

Next, South Africa’s mining output will be a closely watched data print, with the official May figures expected at 9:30 GMT today.

Mining production increased at an annual rate of 2.3% in April, while marking the first month of activity growth after 14 successive months of decreases.

“While welcome, this outcome was partly a result of statistical factors. Overall production levels remain suppressed, … illustrative of the headwinds the industry faces,” Rand Merchant Bank analysts wrote in an investor note, cited by Reuters.

As of 9:19 GMT on Thursday USD/ZAR was edging down 0.49% to trade at 18.0475. Earlier in the session, the exotic Forex pair went down as low as 17.9915. The latter has been the pair’s weakest level since April 20th (17.9904).