The rand was strong in early morning trade on Wednesday as the country waits for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to give his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).
The rand was trading at R18.68 to the dollar at 8.30am. Against the euro, the rand was trading at R19.75 at 8.30am. The rand was trading at R22.67 to the pound at 8.30am.
MTBPS
On Tuesday, Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop said that recently the rand had seen some mild strength as MTBPS will be tabled on Wednesday at 2pm.
“Available data on the fiscal half year showed that expenditure is at 51% of the budget estimate,” according to Bishop.
"Markets and the credit rating agencies will be watching the debt projections, with downgrades a risk on markedly higher debt revisions," Bishop stated.
Nedbank's forecasts and predictions for MTBPS
Nedbank stated that it expects government to say that real GDP growth for 2023 was at 0.6% and there will be 1.1% in 2024; this is slightly lower than the National Treasury’s February forecast of 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively.
It also said that there are risks to growth and they remain on the State, “due to uncertainties surrounding load shedding, transport bottlenecks, fading global growth momentum, subdued international commodity prices, and the slowdown in domestic demand due to higher interest rates”.
The bank argues that government is likely to revise its growth forecasts, and this is slightly lower than expected.
On Tuesday, SA also recorded a trade surplus of R13.14 billion rand for the month of September, according to revenue service figures.
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