Consume Price Index (CPI) declined by decelerated by 0.7% from 7% in February to 6.3% in March.

The announcement was by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday.

According to BDLIVE, a poll of economists expected the inflation to decline to not less than 6.6.

Standard Bank trader Oliver Alwar said “any lower print may put mild pressure on the rand”.

The worse-than-expected outcome may lead the Reserve Bank to further hike interest rates. The Bank has so far this year hiked rates by a cumulative 75 basis points.

The local currency has been on a strengthening path of late‚ pushing below the R14.20 handle on Tuesday for the first time in five months.

At 8.44am‚ the rand was trading at R14.3254 to the dollar from R14.2724 at Tuesday’s close. It was at R16.2834 against the euro from R16.2092 previously‚ and at R20.5814 against the pound from R20.5489 previously.

The euro was at $1.1366 from $1.1357 in the previous session.