I remember once, back in the day, seeing the rand flirt with the 20 mark against the pound. It would have been funny if it weren’t so sad, and it looks like we’re once again dicing with the idea of forking over far too much to get our grubby paws on some foreign currency.

Yesterday saw the rand hit its lowest point in seven years against the pound, trading at its worst rate since 2008. It peaked overnight Monday at R19.22, although it has since recovered and (at the time of writing) sits at R19.04.

The rand is also tanking hard against the dollar and euro, sitting at R12.35 and R13.96 respectively. Here’s Fin24:

International factors such as Greece, a stronger dollar, and local factors such as poor job creation and lame economic growth has been blamed for rand weakness.

The rand-dollar exchange rate usually receives more attention because resources are sold in dollars and South Africa, which imports more than 75% of its fuel, pays for it in dollars.

Good luck to those heading over to the UK for the Rugby World Cup, I suggest you take a hip flask full of the good stuff everywhere you go because it ain’t going to come cheap.

[source:fin24]