Otmane El Rhazi : Weak commodities to weigh on rand, current account and growth

Otmane El Rhazi from Mining Weekly | Ferrous Metals Home.

The sharp decline in commodity prices is, on balance, negative for the outlook for the South African rand, new bank research shows, with lower oil prices being more than offset by lower mineral and metals prices. Standard Bank head of South African research Walter de Wet highlights that crude oil and petroleum imports make up about 20% of total physical-goods imports, which is far less than the proportion of commodity exports in South Africa’s total export basket. Metals and mineral commodity exports, such as coal, gold, iron-ore and platinum, account for around 53% of the country’s physical-goods exports.