The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for March 2011 that record a trade surplus of R0.97 billion.
Summary
The trade surplus for March 2011 is R0.97 billion (surplus of R0.17 billion in March 2010) compared to a deficit of R0.35 billion in February 2011, a month to month increase of R1.32 billion. This surplus was due to an increase in exports of 15.3 percent and an increase in imports of 12.7 percent.
Exports for March 2011 of R60.24 billion and imports of R59.27 billion resulted in a surplus of R0.97 billion.
Exports increased by R8.0 billion (15.3 percent) and imports increased by R6.7 billion (12.7 percent).
The trade surplus for March 2011 was buoyed by higher commodity exports specifically in precious and semi-precious stones and mineral products.
The cumulative deficit for the year to date is R4.5 billion compared to R9 billion in 2010, an improvement of R4.5 billion or 49.9 percent.
Trade highlights by category
- The February to March change (up by 15.3 percent) in exports of goods reflected increases mainly in
- Precious and semi-precious stones and metals increased by R2 179 million (17 percent)
- Mineral products increased by R1 757 million (14 percent)
- Base metals and articles thereof increased by R1 415 million (18 percent);
- Machinery and electrical appliances increased by R 814 million (19 percent)
- Vehicles, aircraft and vessels increased by R 737 million (16 percent)
- The February to March change (up by 12.7 percent) in imports of goods reflected increases mainly in
- Vehicles, aircraft and vessels increased by R3 518 million (67 percent)
- Machinery and electrical appliances increased by R3 093 million (27 percent)
- Products of the chemical or allied industries increased by R1 283 million (29 percent)
- Base metals and articles thereof increased by R 663 million (32 percent)
- Plastics and rubber and articles thereof increased by R 479 million (25 percent)
- Animal or vegetable fats and oils and their cleavage products increased by R 462 million (71 percent)
- Original equipment components increased by R 112 million (3 percent) and
- A decrease in Mineral products by R3 210 million (-24 percent).
Trade Highlights by World Zone
The world zone results for February and March 2011 as given below are unaudited.
- Asia: The deficit decreased from R 5.0 billion in February to R 1.2 billion in March 2011. Exports increased by R 3.7 billion to
R 22.1bn and imports increased by R0.02 billion to R 23.3bn - Europe: The deficit increased from R 1.5 billion in February to R 8.9 billion in March 2011. Exports decreased by R 0.01bn to
R 14.7bn and imports increased by R 7.4 billion to R 23.6 billion. - America: The deficit increased from R 0.1bn in February to R 0.8 billion in March 2011. Exports increased by R 0.9 billion to
R 7.0 billion and imports increased by R 1.5 billion to R 7.8 billion. - Africa: The surplus increased from R 2.2 billion in February to R 6.0 billion in March 2011. Exports increased by R 1.6 billion to
R 9.5bn and imports decreased by R 2.3 billion to R 3.5 billion. - Oceania: The deficit decreased from R 0.5 billion in February to R 0.3 billion in March 2011. Exports increased by R 0.1 billion to
R 0.7 billion and imports decreased by R 0.03 billion to R 1.0 billion.
For more detail, visit our Trade Statistics webpage.
South African trade release table
Source: South African Revenue Service
