JOHANNESBURG: South African Revenue Service stated that the South Africa’s trade deficit narrowed to 8.48 billion rand in February from 24.22 billion rand in January, after a substantial rise in exports.
This was worse than the expected deficit of R6.35bn.The R8.48bn shortfall was due to exports of R76.85bn and imports of R85.33bn, the South African Revenue Service reported on Tuesday. Exports increased from January to February by R9.78bn, or 14.6%, and imports decreased from January to February by R5.96bn, or 6.5%.The cumulative deficit for 2015 is R32.7bn compared with R15.49bn in 2014.The exports of vehicle and transport equipment, precious metals and stones, machinery and electronics, and base metals increased while those of mineral products fell.