Rand lower against the dollar, bonds rally

South Africa's rand dipped against the US dollar last Friday but still outperformed oil-linked developing currencies that suffered as the price of Brent crude sank to a four-year low after OPEC blocked calls to cut global output. The local unit traded in a narrow range overnight in thin volume as US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. By early Friday it weakened 0.3% to 11.0160 per dollar. OPEC, the club of oil-producing countries, opted to roll-over its output ceiling of 30 million barrels a day after calls by poorer members for output cuts to stimulate weak global prices. Falling oil prices, down by over a third since June, boosted South Africa's limping economy, with October producer price inflation last Thursday at its lowest since December 2013. That helped send the yield on the benchmark government bond to a year low of 7.665%. The plummet in crude prices is expected to hurt emerging economies dependent on oil exports, with Africa's largest economy, Nigeria, already forced to devalue its currency by 8% this week. "For EMs which is net importers of oil, such as South Africa and Turkey, the oil price plummet is a positive on their terms of trade," economists from EM Analytics said in a note. Local trade balance data was, however, expected to show a growing deficit and could move the rand out its recent range, with a Reuters poll putting the gap at 7.1 billion rand for October. JOHANNESBURG-NAMPA/REUTERS