Rand extends losses as Greek saga continues

The rand weakened further at midday on Tuesday as uncertainty over the Greek debt saga continued to unsettle markets.

The domestic unit fell to session lows of R12.5003 to the dollar‚ its weakest level since June 9‚ as Greek officials looked to present fresh proposals to creditors in an attempt to resolve the crisis.

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The indebted eurozone nation is under pressure to find a deal that will help unlock funds from creditors before another debt repayment deadline on July 20.

Last week‚ it defaulted on a repayment to the International Monetary Fund.

With no sign of a deal yet‚ most market participants chose the dollar because of its perceived safe-have status‚ leaving risk currencies such as the rand exposed.

At 11.36am‚ the rand was at R12.4680 against the greenback from a close of R12.3911 on Monday.

The rand was at R13.6799 against the euro from a previous close of R13.6994 and at R19.3200 to the British pound from R19.3352 previously.

The euro was at $1.0972 from its previous close of $1.1056.

- BDlive