The South African rand (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the currency of South Africa. The rand is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"). The ISO 4217 code is ZAR, from Dutch Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand (South African rand). The rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area between South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Namibia, although the last three countries do have their own currencies.
Historical users of the South African rand included South West Africa and the nominally independent Bantustans under the apartheid system: Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and Venda.
Video South African rand
Etymology
The rand takes its name from the Witwatersrand (literally "white waters' ridge" in English), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found.
Maps South African rand
History
The rand was introduced in the then Union of South Africa on 14 February 1961, three months before the Republic of South Africa was established. A Decimal Coinage Commission had been set up in 1956 to consider a move away from the denominations of pounds, shillings, and pence, submitting its recommendation on 8 August 1958. It replaced the South African pound as legal tender, at the rate of 2 rand to 1 pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. The government introduced a mascot, Decimal Dan, "the rand-cent man" (known in Afrikaans as Daan Desimaal). This was accompanied by a radio jingle, to inform the public about the new currency.
Brief exchange rate history
1975-2000
A rand was worth US$1.40 from the time of its inception in 1961 until late in 1971. Its value thereafter fluctuated as various exchange rate dispensations were implemented by the South African authorities. By the early 1980s high inflation and mounting political pressure combined with sanctions placed against the country due to apartheid started to erode its value. The currency broke above parity with the dollar for the first time in March 1982, and continued to trade between R 1 and R 1.30 to the dollar until June 1984, when depreciation of the currency gained momentum. By February 1985, it was trading over R 2 per dollar, and in July that year, all foreign exchange trading was suspended for three days to try to stop the depreciation.
By the time that State President P. W. Botha made his Rubicon speech on 15 August 1985, it had weakened to R 2.40 per dollar. The currency recovered somewhat between 1986-88, trading near the R 2 level most of the time and even breaking beneath it sporadically. The recovery was short-lived, however, and by the end of 1989, the rand was trading at levels more than R 2.50 per dollar.
As it became clear in the early 1990s that the country was destined for black majority rule and one reform after the other was announced, uncertainty about the future of the country hastened the depreciation until the level of R 3 to the dollar was breached in November 1992. A host of local and international events influenced the currency after that, most notably the 1994 democratic election which had it weaken to over R 3.60 to the dollar, the election of Tito Mboweni as the new governor of the South African Reserve Bank, and the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999 which had it quickly slide to over R 6 to the dollar. The controversial land reform program that was kicked off in Zimbabwe, followed by the September 11, 2001 attacks, propelled it to its weakest historical level of R 13.84 to the dollar in December 2001.
2001-2011
This sudden depreciation in 2001 led to a formal investigation, which in turn led to a dramatic recovery. By the end of 2002, the currency was trading under R 9 to the dollar again, and by the end of 2004 was trading under R 5.70 to the dollar. The currency softened somewhat in 2005, and was trading around R 6.35 to the dollar at the end of the year. At the start of 2006, however, the currency resumed its rally, and as of 19 January 2006, was trading under R 6 to the dollar again. However, during the second and third quarters of 2006 (i.e. April through September), the rand weakened significantly.
In sterling terms, it fell from around 9.5p to just over 7p, losing some 25% of its international trade-weighted value in just six months. Late in 2007, the rand rallied modestly to just over 8p, only to experience a precipitous slide during the first quarter of 2008.
This downward slide could be attributed to a range of factors: South Africa's worsening current account deficit, which widened to a 36-year high of 7.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007; inflation at a five-year high of just under 9%; escalating global risk aversion as investors' concerns over the spreading impact of the subprime crisis grew; and a general flight to "safe havens", away from the perceived risks of emerging markets. The rand depreciation was exacerbated by the Eskom electricity crisis, which arose from the utility being unable to meet the country's rapidly growing energy demands.
2012-now
A stalled mining industry in late 2012 led to new lows in early 2013. In late January 2014, the rand slid to R11.25 to the dollar, with analysts attributing the shift to "word from the US Federal Reserve that it would trim back stimulus spending, which led to a massive sell-off in emerging economies." In 2014 South Africa experienced its worst year against the US dollar since 2009, and in March 2015, the rand traded at its worst since 2002. At the time, Trading Economics released data that the rand "averaged R4.97 to the dollar between 1972 and 2015, reaching an all time high of R12.45 in December of 2001 and a record low of R0.67 in June of 1973." By the end of 2014, the rand had weakened to R 15.05 per dollar, partly due to South Africa's consistent trade account deficit with the rest of the world.
From 9 December 2015 to 13 December 2015, over a four-day period, the rand dropped over 10% due to what some suspected was President Zuma's surprise announcement that he would be replacing the then-Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene with the little-known David van Rooyen. The rapid drop in value was stemmed when the President back-tracked and announced that the better-known previous Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, would instead be appointed to the post. Zuma's surprise firing of Nene damaged international confidence in the rand, with it experiencing significant exchange volatility throughout much of January 2016, reaching an all-time low of R 17.9169 to the US dollar on the 9 January 2016 before rebounding to R 16.57 later the same day.
The January drop in value was also partly caused by Japanese retail investors cutting their losses in the currency to look for higher-yield investments elsewhere and due to concerns over the impact of the economic slowdown in China, South Africa's largest export partner. By mid-January, economists were speculating that the rand could expect to see further volatility for the rest of 2016. By 29 April, it reached its highest performance over the previous 5 months, exchanging at a rate of 14.16 to the United States dollar
Following the United Kingdom's (UK) vote to leave the European Union (EU), the rand dropped in value over 8% against the United States dollar on the 24th June 2016, the currency's largest single-day decline since the 2008 crash. This was partly due to a general global financial retreat from currencies seen as risky to the US dollar and partly due to concerns over how the UK's withdrawal from the EU would impact South Africa's economy and trade relations.
In April 2017, a Reuters poll estimated that the rand would remain relatively stable for the rest of the year, as two polls found that analysts had already factored in a possible downgrade to "junk" status. At the time, Moody's graded South Africa two notches above junk status. When president Jacob Zuma narrowly won a motion of no-confidence in South Africa in August 2017, the rand continued to slide, dropping 1.7 percent that day. In September 2017, Goldman Sachs Group said that the debt and corruption of Eskom Holdings was the biggest risk to South Africa's economy and exchange rate of the rand. At the time it had no permanent CEO, and Colin Coleman of Goldman Sachs in Africa said the company was "having discussions on solutions" on finding credible management. In October 2017, the rand firmed against the US dollar as it recovered from a six-month low. Reuters noted that "South Africa is highly susceptible to global investor sentiment as the country relies on foreign money to cover its large budget and current account deficits." On November 13, 2017, the rand "tumbled" over a full percent when the budget chief Michael Sachs stood down from his position in Zuma's administration.
Coins
Coins were introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1/2, 1, 2 1/2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. In 1965, 2-cent coins replaced the 2 1/2-cent coins. The 1/2-cent coin was last struck for circulation in 1973. The 2-rand coin was introduced in 1989, followed by 5-rand coins in 1994. Production of the 1- and 2-cent coins was discontinued in 2002, primarily due to inflation having devalued them, but they remain legal tender. Shops normally round the total purchase price of goods to the nearest 10 cents (in favour of the consumer).
In an effort to curb counterfeiting, a new 5-rand coin was released in August 2004. Security features introduced on the coin include a bimetal design (similar to the EUR1 and EUR2 coins, the Thai 10-baht coin, the British £2 coin, and the Canadian $2 coin), a specially serrated security groove along the rim and microlettering.
Banknotes
The first series of rand banknotes was introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1, 2, 10, and 20 rand, with similar designs and colours to the preceding pound notes to ease the transition. They bore the image of what was believed at the time to be Jan van Riebeeck, the first V.O.C. administrator of Cape Town. It was later discovered that the image was not in fact Van Riebeeck at all. Like the last pound notes, they were printed in two variants, one with English written first and the other with Afrikaans written first. This practice was continued in the 1966 series which included the first 5-rand notes, but did not include the 20-rand denomination.
The 1978 series began with denominations of 2, 5, and 10 rand, with 20 and 50 rand introduced in 1984. This series had a major design change. In addition, the series has only one variant for each denomination of note. Afrikaans was the first language on the 2, 10, and 50 rand, while English was the first language on 5 and 20 rand. The notes bore the image of Jan van Riebeeck. The 1-rand note was replaced by a coin.
In the 1990s, the notes were redesigned with images of the Big Five wildlife species; 10-, 20- and 50-rand notes were introduced in 1992, retaining the colour scheme of the previous issue. Coins were introduced for 2 rand and 5 rand, replacing the notes of the previous series, mainly because of the severe wear and tear experienced with low-denomination notes in circulation. In 1994, notes were introduced for 100 and 200 rand.
The 2005 series has the same principal design, but with additional security features such as colour-shifting ink on the 50-rand and higher and the EURion constellation. The obverses of all denominations are printed in English, while two other languages are printed on the reverses, thus making use of all 11 official languages of South Africa.
In 2010, the South African Reserve Bank and commercial banks withdrew all 1994 series R 200 banknotes due to relatively high-quality counterfeit notes in circulation.
In 2011, the South African Reserve Bank issued 100-rand banknotes which were defective because they lacked fluorescent printing visible under UV light. In June, printing of this denomination was moved from the South African Bank Note Company to Crane Currency's Swedish division (Tumba Bruk), which reportedly produced 80 million 100-rand notes. The South African Reserve Bank shredded 3.6 million 100-rand banknotes printed by Crane Currency because they had the same serial numbers as a batch printed by the South African Bank Note Company. In addition, the notes printed in Sweden were not the correct colour, and they were 1 mm short.
On 11 February 2012, President Jacob Zuma announced that the country would be issuing a complete set of banknotes bearing Nelson Mandela's image. They were entered into circulation on 6 November 2012.
In 2013, the 2012 series was updated with the addition of the EURion constellation to all five notes.
First series
Second series
Third series
Fourth series
Fifth series
See also
- Financial rand
- Witwatersrand
- Krugerrand
- Coins of the South African rand
- South African pound
- Economy of South Africa
References
Further reading
External links
- South African Reserve Bank Currency Page
- US Federal Reserve Bank historical exchange rate data
- South African Currency Page, with a short description of each note.
- South African Currency Page (old rand), a short description of pre-1994 (apartheid-era) notes.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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