Politics and SOEs may hurt SA trade – analyst

Johannesburg – South Africa’s trade has been on a positive trajectory since April, with data from the South African Revenue Service (SARS) showing a trade surplus of R10.67bn for June 2017. However, an analyst warns that politics and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) could knock exports in coming months.

The trade data released on Monday showed the surplus increased from R9.5bn reported in May and was above market expectations of R9.4bn. For the period between January to June the trade balance surplus was R27.68bn, compared to the R5.04bn deficit reported for the same period last year.

“The significance of this trajectory is that import prices are falling relative to the country’s exports,” explained Karl Gotte, head of commercial banking at Standard Bank. This is also contributing to the stable inflation of 5.1% reported in June.