I am doing a strategic risk analysis of South Africa, and need as much
information as possible on their financial forces.  This would be info
such as: foreign currency exchange risk, national balance of payments,
taxation, tarrifs, monetary and fiscal policies, vehicle currency,
intervention currency, spot rate, forward rates, differential exchange
rates, etc.
Could you forward me some links to sites that have this info?
Thank-you!

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 14 Apr 2005 10:54 PDT

Your best starting point my well be this 95-page investment report on
South Africa prepared by the US government as a guide to business
investment opportunities and risks in other countries:


http://www.buyusainfo.net/docs/x_1991932.pdf


Have a look at this, and then let me know what other sort of
information you need to make for a comprehensive answer to your
question.

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by franzie-ga on 14 Apr 2005 16:40 PDT

The report was very helpful, although it didn't include much on South
Africa's spot rate, forward rate, premium/discount rate, vehicle
currency, and intervention currency.  These things are apparently hard
to find in under-developed countries, so they may not even exist for
South Africa.  Anything you can find is great; in-depth counrty
reports always have something useful.
Thanks so much!

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 15 Apr 2005 05:10 PDT

franzie-ga,

Thanks for the note.  I must admit to not being familiar with the
specific rates you mention, but I did find a source for some financial
rate information in South Africa.  The rates I found include the
following:



Money Market Rates

Repo rate 
Marginal lending rate 
SAONIA + 
SAONIA   
Forex forwards   
Carry rate    
Bankers' acceptance - 3 months    
Treasury bills - 91 day (tender rates)    
Treasury bills - 182 day (tender rates)   
PN's - 3 months (closing rates)  
PN's - 6 months (closing rates)   
PN's - 12 months (closing rates)   
Prime overdraft rate (predominant rate) 


Capital Market Rates  

R194 (closing yieds)  
R 153(closing yields)  
3-5 years (daily average bond yields)
5-10 years (daily average bond yields)
10 years and longer (daily average bond yields)

Exchange rates  

 
Nominal effective exchange rate
Rand per US Dollar
Rand per British Pound
Rand per Euro
Rand per Japanese Yen


London gold price per fine ounce 
 
US Dollar 
Rand 



Are these of help to you at all?


Let me know.


paf

---

Clarification of Question by franzie-ga on 15 Apr 2005 16:30 PDT

Yes, anything on currency and exchange rates would be great.  Graphs,
tables and trend lines are a big help too.  I only have until Sunday
to have this stuff together, so whatever you can find between now and
Saturday afternoon will work.
Cheers!

franzie-ga,

Thanks for getting back to me on this, and giving me the go-ahead to
answer your question.

I found the motherlode of financial data for South Africa at the South
African Reserve Bank.  While their site may not have each and every
piece of data you were looking for, I think you'll find it probaly has
most of what you're after.  The trick, though, is finding it.  Their
website takes a bit of getting used to.

I've tried to isolate what seemed to be the most useful pages from the
Bank's site, and steer you towards the best information.  However, you
may want to spend a bit of time exploring the site for yourself, as
there may well be sources of information I overlooked.

I posted a fast answer, as you're in a rush.  But I'll be checking
this site over the weekend, in case you need any further assistance on
anything.

Please don't rate this answer until you have everything you need.  If
you would like any additional information, just post a Request for
Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further, and I'm at
your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga


==========

Start here:

http://www.reservebank.co.za/


South African Reserve Bank 
Statistical & economic info


and notice that on the right side of the page is a brief overview of
some current rates.


Over on the left is a list of topical areas on the site.  The most
fruitful item here for starters is probably the "Selected Historical
Data", but also take note of the full list as there's A LOT of stuff
here, so do look around.


Clicking on the "Selected Historical Data" takes you to another page
with a lot of offerings on it:

-----
Release calendar 
Advance Release Calendar     

Statistical information 
Current Market Rates     
Economic and Financial Data for South Africa     
Monthly Release of Selected Data     
Methodology Statements  Link to the IMF   
Selected Historical Data     
External debt 
Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity 

Monetary Policy Review 
Monetary Policy Reviews     

Quarterly Bulletin 
Quarterly Bulletins 
Quarterly Bulletin : Notes to tables 
Quarterly Bulletin : Supplements 
Quarterly Bulletin : Articles and Notes     
Statistical tables : Historic macroeconomic information download options
  Online download facility    
  Download information from zipped data files: Quarterly Bulletin No
235 - March 2005
Special Notes
  Release of newly calculated monetary aggregates    

Annual Economic Report 
Annual Economic Reports 

Information on the banking sector 
Banks' DI900 Returns  Individual bank's balance sheets   
Total Banks data  Aggregated DI returns for the South African banking sector   

Other publications 
Conference papers     
Occasional papers     
Link to other publications issued by the Bank     
Guide for the completion of statistical returns by public-sector institutions 
Institutional Sector Classification Guide for South Africa 
Monthly Release of Selected Data 
-----
  

Again, there's a lot to choose from.  Under the category of
"Statistical Information, pick (again) Selected Historical Data, which
takes you to a page where you can download a good deal of trends data
on different rates and statistics.  Unfortunately, there is not a
direct URL to this site, so you'll just have to click through the
steps to get there.


Other pages on the site do have direct links, and some of the ones
that seemed most worthwhile to me for your purposes are:


http://www.resbank.co.za/sarbdata/rates/rates.asp?type=cmr
Current Market Rates



http://www.resbank.co.za/sarbdata/rates/newmrd.asp?type=MRDIE
International economic data

Changes in gold and other foreign reserves (R millions) 

Gross reserves of SARB and open position in foreign currency (US $ millions)

Net average daily turnover on the SA forex market (US $ millions)

Total spot transactions

Total forward transactions

Total swap transactions

Transactions in third currencies

Exchange rates (averages)

Average daily fixing price of gold per fine ounce




http://www.reservebank.co.za/internet/Live%20SDDSAppl.nsf/sddsdata?openagent#Fiscal%20Sector
Economic and Financial Data for South Africa

Fiscal Sector  

Real Sector  

Financial Sector     

External Sector    

Population 





http://www.resbank.co.za/sarbdata/rates/rates.asp?type=OID
Other Indicators



Near the bottom of the "Other Indicators" page is a link (again, with
no direct URL) for an "Online statistical query (historical macromedia
timeseries information)"


You'll definitely want to take a look at this query-based system where
you can pull up a wide variety of historical data using their
fill-in-the-boxes forms.

The actual "selection" page does seem to have a working link:



http://www.reservebank.co.za/internet/publication.nsf/(Web%20Main%20Frameset)?OpenFrameSet&Frame=frmMain&Src=_o5tkmst35e9n6at1fe1qm4r39cdgn8qbfdon6ssr65tbk6ham5th68cr471ijgdpg6ks66dr270o38chi6kr64d1k60o38dpi6gp34fqfe1imsh3fcdqmqpbeegj42tbkdt374obdcli00_


where I selected: 


"Download a single time series"


which took me to a search form (no link) and an option to:


Search for a time series code


Searching on the term [ rate ] resulted in 72 options for historical information:

Code Description 
KBP1180 Banking institutions : Term lending base rate  
KBP1181 Banking institutions : Average rates on new fixed rate
instalment sale agreements
KBP1182 Banking institutions : Average rates on adjustable rate
instalment sale agreements
KBP1404 Predominant overdraft rate on current accounts  
KBP1405 Discount rates on 91-day Treasury Bills  
KBP1406 Discount rates on 3-month bankers' acceptances  
KBP1444 Money market interest rates: SAONIA (SA overnight index ave) -
benchmark reference rate for the interbank o/n call rate
KBP1445 Money market interest rates: Weighted average rate on carries 
KBP1446 Money market interest rates: Weighted average rate on forex forwards 
KBP1447 Money market interest rates: Rand overnight deposit rate (RODR) 
KBP1448 Money market interest rates: SARB debentures - 28 day Average rate 
KBP1450 JIBA rates: 3 months  
KBP1451 Forward rate agreements - FRA: 9*12 (3-month BA in nine months' time) 
KBP1452 Money market interest rates: SARB debentures - 91 day Average rate 
KBP2007 Predominant rate on retail deposits: 1-year fixed deposits at banks 
KBP2008 Predominant rate on retail deposits: 3-year fixed deposits at banks 
KBP2009 Predominant rate on retail deposits: Postbank savings certificates 
KBP2010 Predominant rate: Participation mortgage bond schemes  
KBP2011 Predominant rate on new mortgage loans: Banks - dwelling units 
KBP2012 Predominant rate on new mortgage loans: Participation mort- gage bonds 
KBP2020 Usury Act : Maximum finance charges rates : Money loans R1- R10 000 
KBP2021 Usury Act: Maximum finance charges rates: Money loans R6 001 - R500 000 
KBP2022 Usury Act: Maximum finance charges rates: Credit and leasing
transactions R1 - R6 000
KBP2023 Usury Act: Maximum finance charges rates: Credit and leasing
transactions R6 001 - R500 000
KBP4101 Total debt of central government : non-marketable floating rate stock 
KBP5310 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Australian dollar Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5312 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Botswana pula Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5313 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Denmark krone Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5315 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per ecu Middle rates (R1 = 100 cents) 
KBP5317 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per SDR Middle rates (R1 = 100 cents) 
KBP5319 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Japanese yen Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5320 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Canadian dollar Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5322 Euro against the rand (EUR) Middle rate Prior to 1999/01/01 -
European Currency Unit (ECU)
KBP5323 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per China Yuan Middel rate (R1 = 100 cents) 
KBP5324 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per Hong Kong Dollar Middel
rate (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5325 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per India Rupee Middel rate (R1
= 100 cents)
KBP5326 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per Israel Shekel Middel rate
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5331 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Norwegian krone Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5335 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Swedish krona Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5336 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Swiss franc Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5337 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per New Taiwan dollar Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5338 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per UK pound Middle rates (R1 = 100 cents) 
KBP5339 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per USA dollar Middle rates
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5340 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Zimbabwian dollar Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5341 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per South Korea Won Middel rate
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5342 Foreign exchange rate: SA cent per Thailand Baht Middel rate
(R1 = 100 cents)
KBP5353 3-month's forward cover rates  
KBP5358 Rate on 3-month trade financing : UK  
KBP5359 Rate on 3-month trade financing : USA  
KBP5360 Rate on 3-month trade financing : Eurodollar loans  
KBP5361 Rate on 3-month trade financing : South Africa  
KBP5362 6-month's forward cover rates  
KBP5363 12-month's forward cover rates  
KBP5364 Nominal effective exchange rate of the rand : Average for period 
KBP5366 Real effective exchange rate of the rand: Average for period  
KBP5367 Real effective exchange rate of the rand consistently excl.
Zimbabwe: Average for period
KBP5368 Nominal effective exchange rate of the rand consistently excl.
Zimbabwe: End of period
KBP5369 Nominal effective exchange rate of the rand consistently excl.
Zimbabwe: Average for period
KBP5731 Foreign exchange rate : SA cent per Norwegian krone Middle
rates (R1 = 100 cents)
KBP6201 Corporate saving  
KBP6221 Income from property received by incorporated business enterprises 
KBP6222 Income from property received by incorporated business
enterprises: Interest
KBP6223 Income from property received by incorporated business
enterprises: Dividends
KBP6224 Income from property received by incorporated business
enterprises: Rent and royalties
KBP6225 Total income by incorporated business enterprises  
KBP6226 Income from property paid by incorporated business enter- prises 
KBP6227 Income from property paid by incorporated business enter- prises: Interest 
KBP6228 Income from property paid by incorporated business enter-
prises: Dividends
KBP6229 Income from property paid by incorporated business enter-
prises: Rent and royalties
KBP6230 Current taxes on income and wealth by incorporated business enterprises 
KBP6234 Total expenditure by incorporated business enterprises  
KBP7068 Electric current generated  


==========


Like I said, there's a lot here.  I hope I've hit a few nails on the
head in terms of steering you towards useful data.


It's not an easy site to negotiate, so if you need a hand with
anything, just let me know.

Have fun!

pafalafa-ga



search strategy -- Google search on [ south africa forex rate spot ]

Franzie --

Some good comparative and trend data in the report below.  Note that
the Fraser Institute started publishing these reports in 1995, so you
can go back and see the differences that policy changes have made over
the past 9 years:
"Economic Freedom of the World"
http://www.freetheworld.com/download.html

The most-recent version of the Annual Report, for 2004, is here:
http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA