A rising oil price and weaker rand is bad news for motorists, who have already seen prices at the pump rise 15% so far this year
The rand posted its biggest decline in almost a month on Tuesday, which together with an oil price that surged to its highest level in 2019 may signal more bad news for SA consumers ahead of May’s elections.
The emergency rescue further highlighted risks posed to the economy by Eskom’s financial crisis, which saw public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan being forced to deny that the utilityThe rand had dropped 1.15%, the biggest decline since March 27, to R14.3264/$ by 5.25pm. This made it the worst-performing emerging-market currency tracked by Bloomberg.
The rand’s decline was accompanied by a jump of as much as 0.8% in Brent crude oil, which could see motorists hit by another fuel hike, in addition to the 15% increase in 2019 so far.Iranian oil importsThe price rose to $74.57 a barrel as the JSE closed on Tuesday, compared with $54.11 at the start of the year, as the US said it would demand that India, China, Japan and South Korea stop importing from Iran.
Movements in the currency and international oil prices indicate the petrol price may rise another 51c/l in May, according to the Central Energy Fund. That is more bad news for an economy that is struggling to grow and to make a dent in an unemployment rate of more than 27%.
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