Rand, JSE hit as South Africa current account woes deepen

South Africa's currency and equities markets weakened Tuesday after revised figures showed the country's current account in late 2012 was worse than first thought. The South African Reserve Bank revised the third quarter deficit up to 6.8 percent of GDP and reported it hit 6.5 percent in the final quarter of the year. After the news, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's All Share Index was off a third of a percent. Meanwhile the dollar rose 0.8 percent against the rand, with one greenback fetching 9.1810. That will only add to the pressure on the South African economy, which is already struggling under a toxic mix of slow growth and high prices. The South African Reserve Bank's governor Gill Marcus recently expressed concerns that the rand weakness is "overdone". The continued weakness of the South African currency risks fuelling price inflation, which is already hurting poorer consumers. With inflation approaching six percent, it is also brushing the upper end of the central bank's own inflation band, leaving little room for the bank to stoke growth by cutting interest rates.