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Pretoria – South Africa has shown a trade surplus of R1.77bn in November, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) announced on Wednesday.
This figure includes trade with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS). When BLNS trade is excluded, SA showed a R7.45bn deficit for November as a result of exports of R82.31bn and imports of R89.76bn. The cumulative deficit for 2015 is then R155.74bn compared to R196.53bn in 2014.
According to SARS the R1.77bn surplus for November (when BLNS trade is included) is due to exports of R94.66bn and imports of R92.89bn. Exports increased from October 2015 to November 2015 by R8.86bn (10.3%) and imports decreased from October 2015 to November 2015 by R14.51bn (13.5%).
SARS also pointed out that the surplus is an improvement on the deficit of of R5.34bn recorded in November 2014. Exports of R94.66bn are 12.6% more than the exports recorded in November 2014 of R84.08bn. Imports of R92.89bn are 3.9% more than the imports recorded in November 2014 of R89.42bn.
The cumulative deficit for 2015 of R58.18bn is 42.1% less than the deficit for the comparable period in 2014 of R100.48bn.
The month of October 2015 trade balance deficit was revised upwards by R0.21bn from the previous month’s preliminary deficit of R21.39bn to a revised deficit of R21.60bn.
Trade highlights for SARS include an increase of 51.7% in the export of precious metals and stones between October 2015 and November 2015 and an increase of 16.3% in the export of vehicle and transport equipment over the same period. The import of vegetable products declined by 45.8% month-on-month and that of equipment components by 45.1%.
