The South African rand (ZAR) is again losing more than 1.5% against the US dollar, with the greenback trading late in the afternoon against 16.9132 ZAR. The currency of Nelson Mandela's country had already recorded, last Friday, its largest daily fall in more than two months, after President Cyril Ramaphosa had to face strong opposition from the opposition in his fight against corruption and for the implementation of economic reforms in a country already mired in recession even before the covid-19 epidemic broke out.

The rand had thus lost more than 26% against the greenback between the beginning of January and the end of April, before the latter weakened against most of the world currencies. The rand nevertheless remains down 15.6% since the start of the year.

The South African Treasury expects the economy to shrink by more than 7% this year.