South Africa’s rand falls as dollar rises after hawkish Fed minutes

Article content

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s rand fell on Thursday, struggling against a stronger dollar after meeting minutes showed the U.S. Federal Reserve preparing to move aggressively to head off inflation.

At 1526 GMT, the rand traded at around 14.7774 against the dollar, 0.78% weaker than its previous close.

Many Fed officials said they were prepared to raise interest rates in half-percentage-point increments in coming policy meetings to tame inflation, according to the minutes released on Wednesday.

Article content

Hawkish Fed comments tend to weigh on the rand, because higher rates in developed markets drain capital from higher-yielding but riskier emerging markets such as South Africa.

“The rand weakened… on both the hawkish tone…