Johannesburg - South Africa's rand fell to a new 13-year low against the dollar on Monday, after investors sold off emerging market currencies amid heightened expectations of an imminent interest rate hike in the United States.
The rand stumbled 0.7 percent to 12.1270 to the greenback, its softest level since early 2002, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Earlier on Monday, by 06h05 GMT, the rand had weakened 0.2 percent to 12.0590 per dollar after hitting its weakest since 2002 on Friday in the wake of data showing the US unemployment rate had declined to its lowest in more than six years.
The positive data from the world's number one economy raised market expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate hike from near-zero levels by the end of 2015, driving renewed dollar-buying and a fall in bond yields there.
Local bonds were also left reeling by the US economic rebound and the relatively bleak domestic growth outlook. Bonds failed to gain any traction from the start of the European Central Bank's 60 billion euros-a-month bond-buying programme.