JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand slipped early on Friday, erasing some of the previous day's gains, as currency markets braced for US interest rates to rise before those of major peers.

At 0645 GMT, the rand traded at 15.1350 against the dollar, around 0.6% weaker than its previous close.

The dollar traded near its highest levels of the year, bolstered by a surge in US Treasury yields on growing expectations the Federal Reserve will taper its asset purchases by year-end and hike rates in 2022.

The rand has tended to take its cue from global factors in recent weeks, in particular shifts in the outlook for US monetary policy.

Some domestic data releases have been better than predicted recently, and the economy performed strongly in the first half of the year, but the central bank said last week that it thought the bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic was mostly done.

Around 0900 GMT on Friday, Absa purchasing managers' index data will shed more light on conditions in the manufacturing sector.

Government bonds were little changed in early deals, with the yield on the 2030 instrument rising 1.5 basis points to 9.24%.