USD/ZAR eases from 1 1/2-week high ahead of US, SA data prints

The South African Rand was a notch firmer against the US Dollar on Monday, pulling back from over 1-week low, as market focus sets on US CPI inflation figures due out tomorrow.

US headline CPI inflation is expected to have ticked up 0.1% month-over-month in October, according to market expectations, after another 0.4% rise in September.

And, US core consumer prices probably rose 0.3% month-over-month in October, which would match the increase rate in September.

The USD/ZAR pair gained 2.6% last week, driven by hawkish remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He noted that further interest rate hikes might be required in order to push inflation back down towards the Fed’s target.

Meanwhile, Rand traders will be also paying attention to the third-quarter unemployment data out of South Africa, which will be released at 9:30 GMT on Tuesday.

South Africa’s unemployment rate was reported at 32.6% in the second quarter, which has been the lowest since Q1 of 2021.

As of 9:53 GMT on Monday USD/ZAR was edging down 0.17% on the day to trade at 18.6944. Last week, the exotic Forex pair went up as high as 18.8041. The latter has been the pair’s strongest level since October 31st (18.9463).