At 1636 GMT, the rand traded at 18.3100 against the dollar, down 0.94% from its previous close.
South Africa's headline consumer inflation slowed to 7.5% year on year in September compared to 7.6% in August, data showed on Wednesday, but did little to lift the rand.
"It came in largely as expected despite some calling for a positive surprise," said Simon Harvey, head of FX analysis at Monex Europe. "For that reason, it has had a largely limited impact on the currency."
Last week, the central bank governor said inflation might have peaked in the third quarter but the bank wanted to see a decline to firmly within its target range of 3% to 6%.
Data also showed August retail sales rose 2% year-on-year, less than predicted, compared to a revised 8.9% in July.
The sales reflect weak underlying conditions and will likely remain lacklustre for the remainder of the year and into early 2023, said economists at Nedbank in an analyst note.
Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange fell, with the Top-40 index down 1.04% while the broader all-share dropped 1.05%.
Telkom shares fell more than 22% and MTN lost almost 4% after the mobile operators said they had terminated talks about a merger, which would have created the country's biggest telecoms company.
However, shares in Standard Bank rose almost 8% after it posted a 42% rise in nine-month earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders.
"We view this as a very strong update, making good use of the endowment and excess provision tailwinds," Jefferies said in a note.
The government's 2030 bond was weaker, with the yield up 6.5 basis points to 10.870%.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning, Nellie Peyton and Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
