Alarm bells ring as rand plummets

Johannesburg – A massive plummet in the rand/dollar exchange rate on Sunday night is a harbinger of terrible things to come, economists say. ”We are in a bit of a currency crisis right now,“ economist Mike Schussler told The Star on Monday morning. At around midnight, the rand was trading at 17.91 to the dollar, […]

Rates could rise more often this year

THE Reserve Bank could this year be compelled to raise interest rates more frequently than last year to prevent the rand from pushing up prices, economists said. This trend could start at the Bank’s first meeting of the year at the end of this month. At 5.08pm on Monday, the rand was at R16.6565/$ after […]

Consumers squeezed to the max

The continuous drought, the likelihood of an electricity price hike and the probability of a tax increase early this year is going to squeeze consumers to the maximum, according to Neil Roets of Debt Rescue. He said the depreciation of the rand will increase the woes of severely strained consumers during the early part of […]