The South African rand hit a 2023 low of 18.636 currency units to the dollar on March 7, just weeks after hitting a 2023 high against the dollar. South Africa’s recent gray-listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in addition to power shortages, is believed to have contributed to the rand’s decline.
10-hour power outage
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The South African rand exchange rate against the US dollar recently plunged to a 2023 low of 18.636 units to the dollar on March 7, 2023, the latestdatareveal. Prior to this plunge, the rand soared to 16.721 per dollar on January 12, 2023, the currency’s best performance so far this year.
Since then, however, the rand has fallen nearly 10%, making it one of the worst performing African currencies in 2023. According to reports, the rand’s decline is attributed to South Africa’s endless power shortages, which have left many homes and businesses without power for more than 10 hours.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed the country’s first minister of electricity in response to the severe power outages. President Ramaphosa said that in addition to responding to the severe power outage, the new minister, Kgosiento Ramokgopa, is expected to facilitate the coordination of organizations working to find a solution.
Meanwhile, some South African commentators have argued that the recent addition of South Africa to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray list may be one reason for the rand’s recent underperformance against major world currencies.
The rand/dollar rate at the time of this writing (March 10, 4:10 p.m. EST) is just under 18.6 units to the dollar.
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