Johannesburg | Tuesday
SOUTH Africa’s central bank said on Tuesday its net open forward position (NOFP) – a measure of its uncovered foreign exchange liabilities was $4,8-billion at the end of August, the same level as in July.
Analysts polled by Reuters last week had predicted that the NOFP seen as the main problem for the volatile rand – would fall to $4,6-billion. South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Tito Mboweni has described it as the country’s ”overdraft in dollars” and vowed to eliminate it.
However, the outstanding position on the central bank’s Forward bank plunged to $8,4-billion from $9,9-billion at the end of July. The Bank’s use of foreign credit lines climbed to R33.6- billion, versus 20,7-billion in July.
”The changes reflected in foreign credit lines and the oversold forward book is attributable to the draw-down by the South African Reserve Bank during August 2001 of the SARB/National Treasury… $1,5-billion syndicated term loan facility that was signed on July 30 2001,” the central bank said in a statement.
Analysts had predicted the forward book would fall to just $9,6-billion.
The NOFP, built up in a vain attempt to defend the rand, peaked at $23,2-billion and the forward book at $25-billion at the height of the global emerging markets crisis in 1998.
Combined gold and foreign exchange reserves rose to R62,8-billion from R61,7-billion, just below market expectations of R62,9-billion. – Reuters