The rand was trading at its lowest level against the dollar in more than a week on Wednesday amid heightened risk aversion due to political tensions in Ukraine.
The rand was at 10.8760 to the dollar at 06:42 GMT, its weakest since March 4 and barely changed from Tuesday’s New York close.
The SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) will release current account and spending data for the fourth quarter of 2013 at 08:00 GMT and the rand could gain some ground if the current account deficit narrows as expected.
“Further negative headlines on Crimea over the coming days could place the rand under renewed selling pressure,” Barclays Africa analysts wrote in a note.
“On the other hand, we expect today’s Sarb’s Quarterly Bulletin to show that South Africa’s current account deficit narrowed to 5% of GDP from 6.8% of GDP in the third quarter 2013. This could help to limit rand weakness related to a risk-off trading environment.”
Yields on the 2026 government bond and on the 2015 paper each edged up 3.5 basis points to 8.595% and 7.075% respectively.