The South African rand was little moved on Thursday after the release of higher-than-expected domestic producer inflation figures.

At 1045 GMT the rand traded at 17.6625 against the dollar, near Wednesday's closing level.

South Africa's statistics agency data earlier showed that producer inflation was at 1.5% year on year in July, up from 0.6% in June and higher than the 1.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The greenback last traded about 0.2% weaker against a basket of currencies as markets awaited the release of key inflation data from the world's largest economy, for further clues on the Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory.

On Friday, domestically focused traders will look to money supply and private sector credit data, and trade balance and budget balance figures to gauge the health of Africa's most industrialised economy.

On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was last down 0.3%.

South Africa's benchmark 2035 government bond was slightly firmer, as the yield fell 1.5 basis points to 9.58%