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According to Bloomberg, the South African currency declined to 6.7569 per dollar, a drop of 0.7 per cent, although it climbed 0.3 per cent to 9.5450 per euro.
China's growing rate of inflation, which increased 6.4 per cent year on year in June, also persuaded many forex traders to lose their desire for risky investments.
The increase in the nation's consumer price index represented a three-year high and came after the rate rose 5.5 per cent in May when compared to the same month in 2010.
A group of BNP Paribas SA analysts, led by London-based Paul Mortimer-Lee, said developments over the past three days have been "almost uniformly bad for risk-taking".
"We think that Chinese inflation could prove most problematic in the medium term but markets will focus on the Italian debt issue in the coming days," they added.
Posted by Greg Secker
