What is the exchange rate? If you want to travel to the US you could go to your bank and “buy” dollars - exchange your rands for dollars which you can spend in the US. And someone who wanted to exchange rands into dollars would have got more dollars at the end of the year than at the beginning. The rand exchange rate, and, especially, people’s expectations about the rand exchange rate, have ripple effects all the way through the economy. Next week: why does the exchange rate of the rand bounce around so much?