Johannesburg - South Africa's trade account recorded a surplus of R4.7bn in December compared with an R8bn deficit in November, the South African Revenue Service said on Tuesday.
Exports fell by 8.0% month-on-month to R63.0bn in December while imports plunged by 23.8% to R58.3bn.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a shortfall of R3bn for December but the data is volatile and thus hard to forecast.
SARS said the trade account had a cumulative deficit of R15.1bn for 2011 from a surplus of R4.8bn in 2010.