Money SA economy
The rand was little changed in early trade on Thursday, trading in a tight range ahead of producer price inflation data for February and a rate decision by the SARB's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
At 8.20am the rand was bid at R7.38 to the dollar, R9.83 to the euro and R10.99 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.3303 from $1.3327 previously.
RMB analysts said in their morning report that a rate cut today would be a marginal rand negative of say five or 10 cents. But more likely rates would remain on hold which should perhaps provide a 5 cents boost.
"This is not to say the rate differential is unimportant it is just that another 50bp is neither here nor there when the rate gap is 7%," the RMB analysts pointed out.
The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee releases it decision on interest rates at around 3pm.
Data on the local front on Thursday includes producer price inflation data at 9am which will be watched in terms of the market's expectations on local rates with this having some limited feed through into the rand.
Forecasts among the 10 leading economists surveyed ranged from 3.2% y/y to 4.7% y/y.
