Summary : REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/Illustration
July 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar on Friday after data showed the country recorded a smaller-than-expected trade surplus for the month of June.
Investec analyst Annabel Bishop said in a research note that the country’s terms of trade, which dropped over the first half of the year, added to rand weakness.
The June budget surplus (ZABUDM=ECI) rose to 73.84 billion rand from 63.15 billion rand a year earlier, National Treasury data showed.
The government’s benchmark 2030 bond rose, with the yield down 6.5 basis points to 10.360%.
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Anait Miridzhanian in Gdansk; Editing by Kim Coghill and Ken Ferris
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