IMF war chest plan improves global market sentiment

An announcement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde that the fund would “explore options” to increase its “firepower” cheered the markets yesterday. Improved sentiment about the euro zone’s outlook strengthened the common currency. And the rand, which had battled for several days to break convincingly below the R8 to the dollar barrier, touched a best level of R7.7792 at 12.45pm and traded at R7.9368 by 5pm. Source