South African Rand - ZAR

The official currency of South Africa (but also of Namibia and Swaziland where it replaced the « South African Pound ») since 1961 (date when it left the Commonwealth and when The Republic of South Africa was created), the South African Rand (ZAR – from the Dutch “Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand” had a strong external value until 1982 (its value reached until 1 USD). Then it kept depreciating (and/or being directly devalued) in the politic context of the Apartheid and of the economic sanctions given by the main worldwide economies to South Africa. This depreciation lasted after the end of the Apartheid until December 2001.

The important current deficits and the strong inflation have often and generally been at the origin of the continuous depreciation of the Rand since the middle of the 90s.

Structurally, we observed that the exchange value of the South African rand is strongly correlated to gold, of which South Africa is an important producer.

On the basis of an exchange rate of the cross USD/ZAR that fluctuated between 1 and 1.30 from 1982 to 1984, this exchange value reached 2.40 in August 1985 (when the reality of the Apartheid was politically re-affirmed by the South African governmental authorities). The exchange value went past the level USD/ZAR = 3 in November 1992, then USDZAR = 6 in 1999 (election of Thabo Mbeki as President of the Republic), the cross USD/ZAR reached the higher level at 12.2250 in December 2001.

Then, a re-appreciation of the South African rand happened until 2004, then a new important depreciation led to a USD/ZAR cross value superior to USD/ZAR = 10 in November 2008.

An adjustment happened in 2009 in favor of the South African rand, the cross USD/ZAR had on the Forex an exchange value of 7.4485 in November 2009.