S Africa's Nov gold, For Ex reserves up 9.4%

SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa's gold and foreign exchange reserves rose 9.4% to 77.7 billion rand ($1=ZAR10.8755) in November from ZAR71.00 billion in October, the South African Reserve Bank said Friday.

Economists said the rise was mostly due to the rand's precipitous depreciation during the last month. The rand lost nearly 9% against the dollar in November.

The central bank issued preliminary reserve figures in advance of more detailed data on its holdings of gold and foreign currencies later i