Rand bleeds amid monster rally in US$

Yesterday, the rand was trading at around R16.26/$ - close to its weakest point since October 2020. The currency has lost more than 10% of its value over the past month as the US dollar continued to rally. The latest leg of the US dollar’s rise, which began after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 bps last week, has hit currencies that had previously been immune to broad dollar rallies, including the Australian dollar, the yuan and even cryptocurrencies. Against a basket of major currencies, the US dollar topped 104.19 yesterday for the first time since July 2002, extending its almost 9% rise this year, Fin24 reported. Photo File