South Africa brought its long-standing negative net gold and foreign exchange reserves into balance more than a decade ago, but its position has steadily declined since peaking at nearly $50 billion in February 2012.

This has rendered the Reserve Bank powerless to halt the rand’s 21 percent slide against the dollar this year, hitting a record low on Monday, as investors expecting higher US rates dump emerging market assets.

The local unit weakened on Monday after central bank data showed net gold and foreign exchange reserves barely ticked up to $41.244 billion in August.

Available: http://ewn.co.za/2015/09/08/SARB-lacks-ammunition-to-defend-rand