While big money trading is not something most Ladysmith residents do, the tumbling rand is a cause for concern considering that almost everything we buy is imported. Price hikes will be the order of the day if the rand does not reverse some of the punishment it has taken over the last few days. Trading this morning at R14 to the dollar and a whopping R20 to the UK pound (sterling) are record-making figures no SA trader ever wanted to see.

Everyone is blaming China’s economic meltdown.

But other emerging economies are weathering the storm way better than South Africa’s rand…

The reason why we are being pummeled is not exactly clear.

The rand was the hardest hit among 25 emerging market currencies as investors sold off high-risk assets amid worries about the impact of slowing global growth in the world’s second biggest economy.

Read more here.

So now would not be a good time to be travelling abroad or buying anything online from overseas.

It is best to weather the storm and wait to see what happens and pray it does not get any worse…