JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand was on the back foot against the dollar in early Thursday trade, weighed down by persistent worries over the Euro debt crisis. Government bonds were little changed from Wednesday's closing levels, a day after shrugging off data that suggested both consumer demand and inflation pressures were on the rise, denting chances of any further domestic rate cuts. The rand was at 8.0769 to the greenback at 0652 GMT, a 0.48 percent decline from its close at 8.0380. "With no tier one local data today, the rand remains at the mercy of global sentiment which, if Asian markets and commodity prices are anything to go by, is still risk-averse," Standard Bank said. "The poor sentiment due to China's disappointing Q3 2011 GDP data and the lack of an imminent solution to the euro zone debt crisis are still weighing down the rand." Government bonds were mixed, with the yield on the four-year bond edging up half a basis point to 6.725 percent and that for 2026 bond flat at 8.41 percent. "You would have expected the bond market to have sold off a little bit more aggressively given the weakness in the rand but since yesterday the market is a little bit better bid," said Marten Banninga, head of bond trading at WWC Securities. "Even the longer-end spreads have come in a little bit and that indicates that there is some demand for bonds. The market tried to sell off this morning but it ran into bids." Cautious trading would however prevail over uncertainty about the debt problems in Europe and ahead of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget policy statement next week, traders said. The longer end of the curve has come under particular pressure as the market anticipates increased issuance from the Treasury to fund a wider budget deficit for the 2011/12 financial year.

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