The rand depreciated the most in more than a week against the dollar as gold fell from a near- record high on speculation turbulence in Libya may end. South Africa’s currency weakened as much as 0.6 percent to 6.9162 per dollar, the biggest intraday decline since Feb. 22, before trading 0.3 percent down at 6.9045 by 11:52 a.m. in Johannesburg. Against the euro, the rand declined 0.2 percent to 9.5563. Gold, which with platinum accounts for about a fifth of South Africa’s export revenue, fell for the first day in five, as much as 0.8 percent, before trading down 0.1 percent to $1,433.07 an ounce after the Associated Press reported Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have discussed resolving the crisis. Gold reached a record $1,440.32 an ounce yesterday. “The relationship between the rand and gold is still positive, which means that the rand still tends to” weaken in response to a lower gold price,” Standard Bank Group Ltd. analysts, including Johannesburg-based Michael Keenan, wrote in a note to clients today. Government bonds fell, with the 13.5 percent security due September 2015 losing 20 cents to 121.62 rand. The yield increased 4.4 basis points to 7.71 percent. The ECB is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent when it announces its decision at 1:45 p.m. in Frankfurt today, according to all 53 economists in a Bloomberg survey. That compares with South Africa’s 5.5 percent main interest rate. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Kay in London at ckay5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net.

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