Comments on Current Affairs

The Rand has gained almost 10% against the USD in 2022.

Let’s look at the driving factors…

On the Global front…

• The unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus supported a strong market rebound in 2021.
• The effects of the pandemic in 2021 included the impact of new variants, supply chain bottlenecks and inflationary pressures.

The Global view:

Energy prices rose, driven in part by supply constraints administered by OPEC – as well as global demand increasing at higher levels than expected. 

On the global front…

• Equities continued to climb in Q2, with the MSCI World Index up 7.9% in USD.  The conditions for risk assets remained supportive, with most economic indicators pointing to strong global growth.