The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for February 2011 that record a trade deficit of R0.4 billion.
Summary
The trade deficit for February 2011 is R0.4 billion (deficit of R5.5 billion in February 2010) compared to a deficit of R4.9 billion in January 2011 which represents a month-to-month improvement of R4.6 billion.
This deficit was due to an increase in exports of 16.7% and an increase in imports of 5.8%.
Exports for February 2011 amounted to R52.2 billion and imports amounted to R52.6 billion resulting in a deficit of R0.4 billion.
Exports increased by R7.5 billion (16.7%) and imports increased by R2.9 billion (5.8%).
The trade deficit for February 2011 was buoyed by higher commodity imports specifically in Mineral products and machinery and electrical appliances.
The cumulative trade deficit as at February 2011 is R5.3 billion compared to R9.0 billion at the end of February 2010 and represents a year-on-year improvement of R3.7 billion (41.3%).
Trade highlights by category
The January to February change (up by 16.7%) in exports of goods reflected increases mainly in:
- vehicles, aircraft and vessels increased by R2 093 million (86%)
- precious and semi-precious stones and metals increased by R1 462 million (13%)
- mineral products increased by R1 412 million (13%)
- machinery and electrical appliances increased by R1 028 million (31%)
- products of the chemical or allied industries by R567 million (21%); and
- a decrease in Base metals and articles thereof by R359 million (-4%).
The January to February change in imports of goods (up by 5.8%) reflected increases mainly in:
- mineral products increased by R4 174 million (44%);
- original equipment components by R345 million (11%) and
- decreases in Machinery and electrical appliances by R1 273 million (-10%) and
- vehicles, aircraft and vessels by R130 million (-2%).
Trade highlights by World Zone
The world zone results for January and February 2011 as given below are unaudited.
- Asia: The deficit increased from R4.9 billion in January to R5.0 billion in February 2011. Exports increased by R1.7 billion to R 18.3 billion and imports increased by R1.8 billion to R23.3 billion.
- Europe: The deficit decreased from R 4.8 billion in January to R1.5 billion in February 2011. Exports increased by R1.7 billion to R14.7billion and imports decreased by R1.6 billion to R16.2 billion.
- America The deficit decreased from R2.1 billion in January to R0.1 billion in February 2011. Exports increased by R2.1 billion to R6.1 billion and imports increased by R0.2 billion to R6.2 billion
- Africa The surplus decreased from R2.9 billion in January to R2.2 billion in February 2011. Exports increased by R1.6 billion to R7.9 billion and imports increased by R2.4 billion to R5.7 billion.
- Oceania The deficit remained constant at R0.4 billion for January and February 2011. Exports increased by R0.01 billion to R0.6 billion and imports increased
by R0.1 billion to R1.0 billion
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Source: South African Revenue Service
