South Africa's business confidence hits 16-year low, weakens rand

South Africa's business confidence fell to its lowest level in more than 16 years due to subdued domestic economic performance and global financial market turmoil, a survey showed on Thursday, pushing the rand to a week's low against the dollar. The Business Confidence Index fell to 84.3 in August, retracting to an even lower level than in June after increasing 87.9 in July, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) said in a statement. An uncertain local economic policy climate