Money SA economy
The South African rand continued its front foot trade on Monday afternoon, tracking a firm euro.
At 3.36pm the rand was bid at R7.61 to the dollar from R7.66 at its previous close. It was bid at R9.34 to the euro and R11.26 to the pound. The euro was bid at $1.2244 from $1.2145 overnight.
A local trader said: "The stronger rand is on the back of a firmer euro. There is very little driving the market at the moment aside from the dollar's performance against the majors. We will now keep an eye on Wall Street, with US futures currently positive," he said.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the euro surged Monday on the back of strong euro-zone economic data that helped cast aside lingering worries of the region's sovereign debt crisis.
Industrial production figures for April showed the sharpest year-on-year increase-at 9.5%-since the euro zone began keeping such data in January 1990, sending the common currency sharply higher.
Euro-zone industrial production was higher in April, with the largest year-on-year increase since records began, despite a growing divergence between the stronger member states and those struggling with large government deficits.
According to figures released by the European Union statistics agency Eurostat, industrial production rose 0.8% from March and gained 9.5% from a year earlier, the sharpest year-on-year increase since records began in January 1990.
The strength of the data came as a surprise. Economists had forecast a 0.5% monthly increase and an 8.7% year-on-year gain, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey last week.
