THE rand clawed its way back to R6,55 to the dollar on Friday afternoon after hitting an 18-month low of R6,58 on Thursday. Economists remain upbeat that the long-term rand forecast looks rosy — most predicting it settling at around R6,30 to the dollar. The rand has been knocked by weakness of the euro against the dollar and negative sentiment from proprietary traders for emerging markets because of political turmoil in neighbouring Zimbabwe and devastating floods in Mozambique. It has already lost more than 7% of its value this year.