JOHANNESBURG, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The South African rand
was little changed early on Tuesday ahead of the publication of
trade figures later in the day.
At 0715 GMT, the rand traded at 17.4125 against the
dollar, versus its previous close of 17.4100.
December trade numbers are due around 1200 GMT.
Analysts polled by Reuters predict a narrower surplus of 5.50
billion rand ($316 million) compared with 7.98 billion rand in
November.
The rand fell more than 1% against the dollar on Monday, as
analysts turned increasingly downbeat about South Africa's
economic prospects because of crippling power cuts.
Last week the central bank slashed its growth forecasts for
2023 and 2024 to 0.3% and 0.7%, from 1.1% and 1.4% respectively,
saying power outages could wipe as much as 2 percentage points
off economic growth this year.
Investec economists said this week they now expect the South
African economy to grow 0.6% this year, down from the 1.1%
forecast at the turn of the year.
There have been power outages every day in 2023, following a
record number of days with outages last year.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa cancelled a planned
appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos this month to
try to address the crisis. He is expected to announce new
interventions to boost power supply when he delivers a state of
the nation address on Feb. 9.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the All-share index was down about 0.8% in early trade on Tuesday.
The government's benchmark 2030 bond was slightly
weaker, with the yield up 1 basis point to 9.700%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
