The South African rand has long served as a sort of early warning system for investors to gauge the impact of Chinese economic news. And yesterday, the alarms sounded as the value of the South African currency fell 1.1% in response to worse-than-expected third-quarter data that revealed the Chinese economy slowed to its slowest pace in a year.
The economy grew just 4.9% in three month period between July and September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down sharply from the nearly 8% growth rate in the second quarter. Industrial production, a key data point for Africa’s commodity-exporting countries, was flat with just 0.1% growth.
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