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Cape Town – South Africa’s trade deficit decreased to R1.07bn in February, falling significantly from its revised January deficit of R17.96bn, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) announced on Thursday.
Exports increased by 27% (R19.29bn) to R90.68bn, while imports rose by 2.7% (R2.4bn) to R91.75bn month-on-month (m/m).
This amounted to an 85.8% decrease in the annual deficit (R7.53bn in 2015), due to a 16.5% year-on-year increase in exports and 7.5% increase in imports.
The cumulative deficit for 2016 of R19.03bn is 38.5% less than the deficit of R30.96bn for the comparable period in 2015.
The results were boosted by a m/m rise of 109% in vehicle and transport equipment exports, a 52% increase in precious metals and stones exports, a 28% boost in machinery and electronics exports and a 35% gain in vegetable products. Mineral exports were down 8%.
The results were much better than expected, as the market was expecting a R4.6bn deficit, said Wichard Cilliers, chief currency dealer at TreasuryOne.
He said earlier that “a negative number (on the trade figures) can place a bit of a hold on more rand strength".
The rand strengthened by 1.9% to R14.67 at 16:15 on the back of the Nkandla Constitutional Court ruling and general risk as the dollar remains on the back foot, he added.
The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the Treasury must determine how much Zuma must pay back for security upgrades to Nkandla, and that the National Assembly had erred in dismissing Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's recommendation that the president repay a portion of the taxpayers' money spent on this.
