Triple Break Proves Rand Investors Only Have Eyes for Politics

South African rand banknotes and coins sit in the till of a retail store in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday, June 22, 2017. South Africa’s inflation rate rose for the first time this year in May after food-price growth quickened from the slowest pace since December 2015.

South Africa just got good news in triplicate. Yet the rand, the world’s most volatile currency, barely budged.

In the space of seven minutes, traders had to digest data showing the economy grew a better-than-forecast 2 percent quarter-on-quarter between July and September, an almost 10 percent jump in the trade surplus in the period to 71 billion rand ($5.3 billion) and a 3.3 billion-rand domestic bond auction at which investors bid for more than double the…

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