USD/ZAR surges after surprise South Africa rate hike

FXstreet.com (London) - USD/ZAR has surged after South Africa's Central Bank voted to raise interest rates by 50 basis points - up from 5 percent to 5.5 percent. The vote was not unanimous, with two board members voting to hold.

Unexpected hike

The move wrong footed many who had expected the central bank to increase its hawkish rhetoric, setting up for a later rate hike – the Rand has seen a trend of weakness, but not the kind of rapid declines seen in other EM currencies.

USD/ZAR is up 3.8 percent so far to ZAR11.3448 from the session open at ZAR10.9256, remaining in strongly bullish territory.