South Africa’s Power Woes Add Stress to Rand in Risk-Off Trade
- President Ramaphosa says power outages won’t end in short-term
- Rand is one of the biggest losers in EM over the past month
Employees work at a sewing machine, powered by a generator, during a load-shedding power outage period in Cape Town.
Photographer: Dwayne Senior/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
South Africa’s rand weakened past 18 per dollar for the first time since May 2020, as President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that rolling blackouts aren’t going away any time soon.
The currency weakened as much as 0.9% to 18.1165 against the greenback by 11:44 a.m. in Johannesburg. Only South Korea’s won had registered greater losses in developing-nation currencies. This month, the rand is down 6.7%, behind the won and Chile’s peso.