Photo by: Duane Daws
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R1.09-billion for November, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Thursday.
This was a deterioration on the surplus of R0.24-billion recorded in November 2015.
“The R1.09-billion trade balance deficit for November 2016 is attributable to exports of R99.64-billion and imports of R100.73-billion,” Sars said in a statement.
“Exports for the year-to-date (January 1 to November 30 2016) grew by 5.8%, from R948.37-billion in 2015 to R1,003.51-billion in 2016.”
The revenue service said the year-to-date deficit of R14.61-billion was lower than the R59.28-billion deficit for the same period last year.
The export of mineral products, precious metals and stone grew by 20% compared to October. The export of base metals, vehicle and transport equipment, and chemical product grew by 11%, 7% and 12% respectively.
The month-on-month import movements showed vehicles and transport equipment imports rose by 57% (R4.2-billion), mineral products by 20% (R2.4-billion), machinery and electronics by seven% (R1.6-billion), prepared foodstuffs by 23% (R770-million), and equipment component by 25% (R1.9-billion).
Exports to Asian countries increased by R4.3-billion to R31-billion from October to November, with imports dropping by R129-million to just under R43-billion. This means the trade balance deficit stood at R11.9-billion for November, a decrease from the October deficit of R16.4-billion.
The trade balance deficit with Europe also grew to R12.2-billion in November compared to R9.5-billion the previous month. This was due to exports growing by R1.8-billion to R21.8-billion and imports increasing by R4.5-billion to R34-billion.
Exports to the Americas increased by R873-million to R9.1-billion, while imports grew by R1.1-billion, leading to a R2.3-billion deficit in November.
South Africa’s only trade surplus was with the rest of Africa and the Oceania region.
Exports to neighbouring African countries grew by R1.9-billion to R30-billion, while South Africa received R3-billion more in imports from the continent to total R11-billion, increasing the trade surplus to R18-billion.
A trade surplus of R222-million was recorded with the Oceania region as a result of exports totalling R1.1-billion rand and imports decreasing to R953-million.