In this podcast Maya (@mayaonmoney) talks to Michael Kruger, Senior Investment Analyst at Morningstar, to unpack the strange emotional relationship we as South Africans seem to have with the value of the rand.

Kruger points out that when the rand is strong, particularly against the US dollar, this often makes us feel better about the state of affairs in South Africa.

When the value of the rand climbs, so does our optimism about the growth and recovery of the country, while a weak currency fires up all the negative sentiment we read about in the press.

A strong rand gives us an emotional boost in the same way that our winning sports teams do. Similarly, when the rand is weak, we see it as a sign of failure.

Is this normal? Do people in other countries feel the same way about their currency?

Are we too obsessed about the value of the rand vs the dollar?

Are we too obsessed about the value of the rand relative to the dollar? While the dollar has been exceptionally strong this year, the rand has fared better than almost all other currencies.

Kruger explains why, when compared to both other developed and even developing countries, the rand has been remarkably strong.

But is a strong rand a good thing? Exporters want a weaker currency to make their goods more competitive, but because South Africa imports key resources like oil, a weak rand fuels inflation. So is there a happy medium and if so, what is that value?

A research report into the factors that impact the rand exchange rate provide some interesting insights – local politics and economics play a far smaller role than we realise.

And finally, when is a good time to take money offshore and where is the best place to keep your foreign currency?