johannesburg july 17 reuters  the south african rand was slightly weaker in early trade on monday with this weeks major focus local inflation data out on wednesday and an interest rate announcement on thursday at 0640 gmt the rand traded at 181025 against the dollar  about 01 weaker than its previous close the rand gained around 4 against the us currency last week bolstered by bets that the us federal reserve will increase interest rates only once more because of cooling inflation in the worlds largest economy the rand was at one stage on track for even larger gains but it lost about 1 on friday as traders booked some profits and as prolonged power blackouts weighed on the investor mood rand merchant bank said in a rand morning briefing that continued profittaking and lacklustre chinese economic data were weighing on the rand in early trade locally everyone is looking ahead to thursdays mpc monetary policy committee rmb added a majority of economists polled by reuters predict the south african reserve bank sarb will leave its main interest rate zarepoeci unchanged at 825 although it is still a close call with a significant minority expecting another 25basispoint hike wednesdays june consumer price index cpi data zacpieci  zacpiyeci could influence the sarbs thinking rand merchant bank predicts a deceleration in headline inflation to 54 year on year in june from 63 in may which would take inflation back within the sarbs 36 target band for the first time since april 2022 a figure on our forecast would help the view of no hike from the sarb and affirm our forecast that inflation will average 59 this year ie within the target band rmb analysts said