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Johannesburg - The South African Revenue Service (Sars) will now only release the foreign trade data for November 2010 on Friday at 14:00, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.
The data was due to have been released Thursday, but the spokesperson said it had been decided to delay the release until Friday. No reason was given for the delay.
South Africa's foreign trade balance with its non-Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) trading partners is expected to have reduced to a deficit of between R1.5bn to R2.8bn in November from a R3.2bn deficit in October, according to leading economists surveyed by I-Net Bridge.
A record R17.4bn deficit was set in January last year, but a few surprise surpluses have been registered since then as export performance began to improve, while the recession crimped back on imports.
Two consecutive surpluses of R5.628bn and R2bn were recorded in June and July respectively, followed by a large deficit of R4.7bn in August.
Some analysts believe that the trade balance might deteriorate due to a gradual improvement in demand as the domestic recovery gains traction.
The Nedbank Group Economics unit said October's 6.3% month-on-month fall in the value of exports probably reflects some impact of the rand's recent strength.
