JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's rand fell more than 1 percent against the dollar on Monday, tracking a retreat in emerging market assets after renewed concerns about Greece's financial woes whittled investors' appetite for risk.
The rand also weakened in line with other commodity currencies hit by worries about the growth prospects for China, a major consumer of South African minerals.
At 1534 GMT the rand traded at 12.2625 versus the greenback, 0.93 percent lower compared with Friday's closing level in New York.
The rand had hit a trough of 12.2900 earlier on Monday, its weakest level since latest April.
"We're seeing the weakness across all EMEA currencies ... the focus still remains on Greece and risks surrounding Greece so there's risk-off sentiment being driven from the development," said Ricardo Da Camara, a market analyst at ETM.
"Also we had weak Chinese economic data out early this morning, with the HSBC PMI number contracting for the third consecutive month, so that will obviously weigh on currencies such as the rand which are exposed to Chinese demand."
Local government bonds were not spared from the sell-off, with the yield for the benchmark instrument due in 2026 climbing 9.5 basis points to 8.26 percent, its highest since October last year.
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