South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R11,94-billion in January after posting a surplus of R388-million in December, the South African Revenue Service said on Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Reuters last week had forecast a deficit of 3.3 billion rand, but the data is notoriously volatile.
Compared with the previous month, exports fell by 16,7% while imports rose by 17,2%.
George Glynos, a market analyst at ETM, said it was ”not a very good number”.
”It seems to be fairly broad-based and not just the oil imports this time. The current account clearly remains under significant pressure. One wonders how long the [South African] Reserve Bank can ignore these deficits.”
Magan Mistry, an economist at Nedbank said: ”It is way above the market expectations. The large trade deficit has implications for the current account and the rand. Therefore, remains one of the key concerns of the Reserve Bank. However, the bank will probably remain focused on the inflation outlook.”
Mike Schussler, an economist at T-Sec said it looked like South Africans were in for a bigger current account deficit.
”It is not good for the rand, considering that three out of the last four have been
greater than R10-billion deficits, which has never happened before in South
Africa.” – Reuters, I-Net Bridge