JOHANNESBURG, Feb 18 (Reuters) - South Africa's rand slipped against the dollar on Tuesday, down from its firmest levels in nearly a month.

The rand ZAR=D3 was at 10.8625 to the dollar at 0611 GMT, down 0.4 percent from Monday's New York close of 10.8200, which was the currency's best showing since the end of January.

It traded within a narrow range on Monday, lacking direction due to a public holiday in the United States and the absence of local and foreign data.

This week, local consumer inflation figures due on Wednesday and Chinese PMI data on Thursday will be in focus.

The rand could strengthen on improved foreign investor appetite for South African bonds and if CPI beats expectations, Absa Capital analysts wrote in a note.

"However, all these gains could quickly be eroded if Thursday's PMI data out of China once again fall short of consensus, and we are still comfortable fading rand rallies, because we think the prevailing bout of short covering is unlikely to be sustained," the note added.

Government bonds were unchanged, with the yield on the 2026 bond ZAR186= at 8.645 percent and that on the 2015 paper

ZAR157= at 7.15 percent.

(Reporting by Tosin Sulaiman; Editing by John Stonestreet)

((tosin.sulaiman@thomsonreuters.com)(+27 11 775 3153)(Reuters Messaging: tosin.sulaiman.thomsonreuters.com@thomsonreuters.net))

Keywords: MARKETS SAFRICA/RAND