JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s rand extended its losses against a strong U.S. dollar on Thursday after a mixed batch of local mining and manufacturing data.
At 1518 GMT, the rand traded at 18.7875 against the dollar, almost 1.2% weaker than its previous close.
South Africa’s manufacturing output rose 2.6% year-on-year in January, statistics agency data showed, higher than economists polled by Reuters had expected.
December output was revised upwards to 1.3% year-on-year.
But new mining figures showed an unexpected downturn. Total mining output was down 3.3% year-on-year in January, while gold production was down 12.7% year-on-year.
A bigger factor in the rand’s weakness may have been the rising dollar, which was last trading up almost 0.6% against a basket of currencies after U.S.
inflation data.
Like most emerging market currencies, the rand takes direction from global factors such as U.S. monetary policy in addition to domestic economic releases.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index closed 0.63% lower.
The benchmark 2030 government bond fell, with the yield up 3 basis points to 10.240%.
(Reporting by Nellie PeytonEditing by Alexander Winning and Sharon Singleton)
