Pula firm against the Rand

The development is a reversal of the trend of previous years during which the pula continuously lost value against the rand and all other major trading partners' currencies except the US dollar due to Botswana's crawling peg exchange rate regime. While the pula is gaining against the rand, it has been losing ground against all other major currencies since January, depreciating by 9.5 percent against the US dollar.

It took about 88 thebe to buy one rand last December, but the figure has now dropped to around 82 thebe. On the other hand, the US dollar rate has risen from P5.98 to P6.63 in the same period. "The main reason for the appreciation of the pula against the rand is that the rand itself is on a free fall as it is now trading around R8 to the dollar," says renowned economist Dr Keith Jefferies.