Trade deficit narrows in May

Exports of R56,24-billion and imports of R57,90-billion in May resulted in a trade deficit of R1,66-billion, the South African Revenue Service said on Monday.

For April, the deficit had been R10-billion.

The May figure was lower than the R6,7-billion median estimate of six economists surveyed by Bloomberg and was mainly due to a month-on-month decrease in imports of mineral products, machinery and vehicles, and a month-on-month increase in exports of precious stones, metals and base metals.

The cumulative trade deficit for January 2008 to May 2008 was R33,7-billion versus a deficit of R24,5-billion for the same period in 2007.—Sapa