The deficit on South Africa’s trade account widened sharply to ZAR 21.33bn in October, from a revised ZAR 3.04bn shortfall in September, according to SA Revenue Service (SARS). “The ZAR 21.33bn deficit for October 2014 is due to exports of ZAR 89bn and imports of ZAR 110.32bn,” SARS said after the release of the October trade data. “Exports decreased from September to October by ZAR 1.63bn [-1.8%) and imports increased from September to October by ZAR 16.65bn [+17.8%].”
The October data brings the cumulative gap for the year to ZAR 95.11bn, compared to ZAR 73.08bn over the same period last year and include the trade statistics and country trade data for Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.