JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -The South African rand was steady against the dollar on Wednesday following data showing a dip in local producer inflation.
At 1556 GMT, the rand traded at 18.3700 to the dollar, near its previous close of 18.2675.
The dollar was down about 0.44% against a basket of currencies.
Shedding further light on inflationary pressures in Africa’s most industrialised economy, statistics agency data showed on Wednesday that South Africa’s producer inflation slowed to 10.6% year-on-year in March from 12.2% in February.
On a month-on-month basis, it was at 1.0% in March from 0.6% the previous month.
Analysts polled by Reuters expected March producer inflation to fall to 10.95% in annual terms and rising to 1.4% from February.
South Africa’s central bank said on Tuesday in a biannual monetary policy document that elevated core inflation was expected to slow the pace of disinflation in the near term.
South Africa marks Freedom Day on Thursday – which commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994 – and with the following Monday another public holiday, many local traders will be away from their desks from Wednesday’s market close until next Tuesday.
Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange rose slightly, with both the broader all-share index and blue-chip Top-40 index ending about 0.3% higher.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond edged higher, with the yield down 2 basis points at 10.205%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
