Rand Near Monthly High vs. USD on Rate Difference, US Uncertainty

The South African rand rose to its highest level in more than two weeks against the US dollar today, as the rate difference attracted speculators, while they shunned uncertainty of the States.

While President Obama continues to press the Congress for the debt ceiling compromise, there’s no end seen to these prolonged debates. Next Tuesday can become one of the worst days in dollar’s history if nothing changes until that. As the global investors have the fact in mind, many of them a reluctant to keep their assets in USD. The recent behavior of the South African rand is showing an elevated interest in this currency.

On the other hand, there’s another attractive advantage in the ZAR for the foreign currency traders — its interest rate (5.5 percent compared to almost zero in the US). Being the Africa’s biggest economy, South Africa is also considered a fiscally and financially stable region, closely tied to the commodity prices (especially gold), which makes it a near-perfect target for short-term currency investments. Five days ago, the South African Reserve Bank has left the rates unchanged, signaling that the period of high rates may continue further.

USD/ZAR fell from 6.7619 to 6.6744 as of 14:53 GMT today, reaching as low as 6.6658 intraday — the maximum level since July 8th.

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