Currency pair · cross of two ECB reference rates

What is the USD/ZAR reference rate and how has it moved?

The USD/ZAR reference rate was 16.4338 on 16 Oct 2026: one USD was worth 16.4338 ZAR. That is 5.1% below a year earlier and 42% of the way up its 52-week range. Annualised volatility over the year was 11.2%.

USD/ZAR · 16 Oct 2026: 16.4338Previous fixing 16.5568 (15 Oct 2026) · ▼ −0.74%
12-month change: ▼ −5.1%from 17.3168 on 16 Oct 2025
52-week range: 15.6738–17.4698low 29 Jan 2026 · high 4 Nov 2025
Volatility, 1 yr: 11.2%annualised; full-year average since 2016: 14.9%

The past twelve months

Daily ECB reference fixings, 16 Oct 2025 – 16 Oct 2026 (255 fixings). Yellow dot: latest.

What the record shows

Over the past year USD/ZAR has been calmer than usual: 11.2% annualised volatility against a 14.9% average for full calendar years since 2016. Its calmest full year was 2025 (10.4%) and its busiest 2016 (20.8%).
Since 4 Jan 2016 the rate has ranged from 11.5651 (23 Feb 2018) to 19.7840 (31 May 2023). Today's fixing is higher than 59% of the 2,763 daily fixings in that period.
Five years ago, on 15 Oct 2021, the fixing was 14.6961, so the rate is 11.8% above that level. Over one month it is ▲ +1.02% (from 16.2680 on 16 Sept 2026).
The largest single-day move of the past year was on 8 Apr 2026: 16.8895 → 16.3104 (▼ −3.43%).
Read the other way round, 1 ZAR was worth 0.06085 USD on 16 Oct 2026 (ZAR/USD).

How is the USD/ZAR figure on this page produced?

The ECB does not publish USD/ZAR; it publishes each currency against the euro. The cross is the ratio of the two: ZAR per euro ÷ USD per euro = 18.4930 ÷ 1.12530 = 16.4338 on 16 Oct 2026. Because both legs are fixed at the same moment, the cross is internally consistent, but it can differ slightly from a market quote at 14:10 CET. See how to calculate a cross rate.

Year by year

USD/ZAR yearly close, change, high, low, average and volatility
Year	Close	Change	High	Low	Average	Vol.
2026 to date	16.4338	▼ −0.7%	17.1906 27 Mar	15.6738 29 Jan	16.3778	10.6%
2025	16.5480	▼ −12.4%	19.7162 9 Apr	16.5480 31 Dec	17.8782	10.4%
2024	18.8842	▲ +2.6%	19.3060 29 Feb	17.1260 27 Sept	18.3229	11.3%
2023	18.4142	▲ +8.5%	19.7840 31 May	16.8270 4 Jan	18.4577	14.4%
2022	16.9685	▲ +6.4%	18.5016 21 Oct	14.4855 13 Apr	16.3860	16.2%
2021	15.9478	▲ +8.6%	16.1856 29 Nov	13.4783 7 Jun	14.7863	14.6%
2020	14.6866	▲ +4.6%	19.0709 23 Apr	14.0709 2 Jan	16.4450	16.7%
2019	14.0442	▼ −2.3%	15.3800 12 Aug	13.2678 31 Jan	14.4535	12.8%
2018	14.3750	▲ +16.4%	15.5332 5 Sept	11.5651 23 Feb	13.2549	16.8%
2017	12.3450	▼ −10.0%	14.5580 13 Nov	12.3450 28 Dec	13.3196	15.1%
2016	13.7150	—	16.7905 18 Jan	13.2381 16 Aug	14.6923	20.8%

Change = last fixing of the year against the last fixing of the previous year (2016 has no prior close in this record). Vol. = annualised standard deviation of daily log changes within the year. 2026 runs to 16 Oct 2026.

Since January 2016

ECB reference fixings, thinned to about every fifth fixing for drawing; the tables use every fixing.

Largest one-day moves since 2016

Date	From	To	Move
17 Mar 2016	16.2125	15.3955	▼ −5.04%
24 Aug 2016	13.4750	14.1445	▲ +4.97%
1 Dec 2022	16.9399	17.7342	▲ +4.69%
24 Jun 2016	14.4570	15.1200	▲ +4.59%
6 Jun 2016	15.5799	14.9850	▼ −3.82%

Moves are measured between consecutive ECB fixings, so a move after a holiday can span more than one calendar day.

Sources

European Central Bank — euro foreign exchange reference rates (series EXR.D.USD+ZAR.EUR.SP00.A, retrieved 16 Oct 2026 via the ECB Data Portal).
Method for crosses, ranges and volatility: methodology.