JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s trade deficit has widened with the country exporting less goods for October than the previous month.
The South African Revenue Service recorded a R21,39 billion deficit for last month, showing the gap between imports and exports is increasing.
Exports decreased from September to October by six percent. Last month’s deficit is broken down between exports of R86,35 billion, compared to a much later import figure of R107,74 billion.
Exports are 2,4 percent less than those recorded in October last year. The large deficit shows that exports are struggling, given sluggish global demand.
South Africa has also been battling with its growth, due to a number of factors including power supply and labour unrest. There is broad consensus that the drought will affect food exports, which will most probably also affect the trade deficit.
