JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand strengthened slightly against the dollar on Monday and was expected to start the week range-bound, but the currency could be hit by looming strikes in Africa's largest economy.
The rand was at 10.2125 to the dollar at 0646 GMT, up 0.3 percent from its New York close on Friday.
Emerging market currencies, including the rand, rallied on Friday after Brazil's central bank announced a $60 billion currency intervention programme to stem a depreciation in the real.
Analysts do not expect a similar move from South Africa's Reserve Bank. Workers in South Africa's construction and transport sectors said they will begin a strike on Monday, joining those in the car manufacturing sector, where a work stoppage that began last Monday has cost the economy an estimated $60 million a day.
The National Union of Mineworkers on Saturday gave gold mining companies seven days to meet its demand for pay rises of up to 60 percent or face strikes.
"Even if emerging market central banks do manage to stem the rate of depreciation, we think South African authorities are unlikely to follow suit in trying to defend an exchange rate level, which could make the rand that much more vulnerable to market forces," Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.
Local data releases due this week include second quarter GDP growth, credit demand, producer inflation and trade data.
"Emerging markets exposed to wide current account deficits are being hammered as rising US interest rates force a rethink of risk exposure," Tradition Analytics said in a note.
Government bonds firmed, with the yield on the 2026 and 2015 issues declining 3 basis points each to 8.515 percent and 6.36 percent.
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