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Pressure grows as SA's current account gap widens

Cape Town - The South Africa economy has taken another knock with the current account shortfall expanding in the first quarter of 2016.

According to data form the SA Reserve Bank, the shortfall on the account widened to 5% of gross domestic product (R211bn) in the first quarter of 2016 from 4.6% (R191bn) in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The current account is the broadest measure of trade in goods and services.

"Gross dividend receipts from abroad have shrunk almost unabatedly since their most recent peak in the first quarter of 2015, while gross dividend payments to nonresident investors rose notably in the first quarter of 2016," Sarb said in its quarterly bulletin.

It added that the trade deficit narrowed to R38bn in the first quarter of 2016 from R41bn in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Figures released by Stats SA last week showed that South Africa recorded a negative growth rate of -1.2% in the first quarter of 2016.

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