JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand came under pressure against the dollar on Monday as the prospect of blackouts this winter revived fears about the country's economic growth prospects.
The rand was at 9.2664 to the dollar at 1518 GMT, 0.5 percent weaker than Friday's close.
Eskom, the utility which provides 95 percent of the power to Africa's biggest economy, said on Monday that it was prepared to introduce rolling blackouts this winter in some parts of the grid as it grapples with soaring demand.
It said the scheduled power outages would prevent a complete system collapse, which would inflict far greater damage on the economy.
The announcement "reignites concerns about South Africa's economic structure and growth outlook," said Luke Barnett, analyst at ETM Analytics.
"It's reminded investors that the rand is one of the weaker currencies at the moment. It's underperformed even as gold has improved."
Government bond yields edged up, gaining 2 basis points to 6.9 percent on the 2026 issue and 1.5 basis points to 5.305 percent on the 2015 paper.
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