31 January 2017
SA’s trade surplus comes in much bigger than expected
in Business by Pericles Anetos
Loading ...
SA recorded a trade surplus of R12.04bn in December‚ much larger than had been expected.
The Bloomberg consensus was for a surplus of R6bn while the Trading Economics forecast was for a R3.5bn surplus.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) said the deficit for full-year 2016 was R2.9bn‚ from R52.18bn in 2015.
December’s R12bn surplus was attributable to exports of R93bn and imports of R80bn.
Exports for the year grew by 5.8% while imports where up by 1% from 2015.
The November deficit was revised to R1.68 billion‚ up R0.59bn from the preliminary deficit of R1.09bn.