Johannesburg - South Africa's rand dipped to an 11-week low against the dollar on Friday, extending losses as a Fitch credit rating update for the local economy and a US jobs data report due later in the day kept risk appetite subdued.
At 06h36 GMT the rand traded at 12.4095 compared to Thursday's New York close of 12.39.
“All moves remain subject to today's and this weekend's immense event risk,” said Rand Merchant Bank in a client note.
“Also watch for comments on Greece by leaders at the G7 summit over the weekend.”
The US nonfarm payrolls report is expected to point to sufficient momentum in the economy for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later this year, a Reuters survey of economists suggested.
“A print above the forecast here will see the greenback rally,” said Maemo Rametse, a trader at Standard Bank.
Fitch, which is due to release its report towards evening, said in March it might downgrade its sovereign rating on South Africa in June, citing weak economic growth.
Central bank data released early on Friday added more pressure on the rand as net gold and foreign exchange reserves fell to $41.519 billion in May from $41.934 billion in April.
On the fixed income front, the yield on the benchmark 2026 bond was half a basis point up at 8.330 percent.
Reuters