S. Africa’s Rand goes from world’s best currency to worst

South Africa’s rand, which had been the world’s best-performing currency in 2017, gave up all its gains in just a week after President Jacob Zuma recalled Pravin Gordhan from meeting investors in London and replaced him as finance minister in a midnight cabinet shuffle, spurring S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings Ltd. to downgrade the nation’s debt to junk. The rand had appreciated 11 percent in 2017 until the March 27 recall, and has now erased almost all its gains this year for the biggest decline among more than 140 currencies monitored by Bloomberg.