By Reuters
JOHANNESBURG: The South African rand fell on Friday as traders mulled the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 sweeping tax-cut and spending bill and as pressure mounted on countries to secure trade deals before the United States鈥 July 9 deadline.
At 1251 GMT, the rand traded at 17.6250 against the dollar, roughly down 0.6% on Thursday鈥檚 close.
The U.S. Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed Trump鈥檚 鈥淥ne, Big, Beautiful Bill鈥 of spending and tax cuts.
鈥淭he upside to this bill is that it will likely boost U.S. demand in the short-to-medium term. The downside is that forecasts are pessimistic on whether it will successfully generate enough GDP growth to outpace the increased spending,鈥 ETM Analytics said in a research note.
Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often takes cues from global drivers like U.S. policy and economic data in addition to local factors.
South Africa and many other countries are scrambling to agree trade deals with the United States before the deadline.
But the U.S. leader said Washington will start sending letters to countries on Friday specifying what tariff rates they will face on imports to the U.S., a clear shift from earlier pledges to strike scores of individual deals.
Traders鈥 domestic focus will be on June foreign reserves data on Monday and May manufacturing production figures on Thursday for insight into the health of Africa鈥檚 most-industrialised economy.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange鈥檚 Top-40 index was last down 0.2%.
South Africa鈥檚 benchmark 2035 government bond was slightly weaker, as the yield rose 1 basis point to 9.745%.