South Africa’s trade account recorded a surplus of R460-million in March, compared with a R5,7-billion shortfall in February, the South African Revenue Service said on Friday.
The trade number is generally volatile and difficult to forecast, with economists polled by Reuters last week having predicted a deficit of R2,5-billion.
Compared with the previous month, exports were up 27,5% while imports increased by 11,16%.
This is what economists had to say:
Dawie Roodt, economist at Efficient Group, said: “A bit of a surprise. It’s a volatile number so its doesn’t really mean anything on a monthly basis. My suspicion is we are still going to have a significant current-account deficit. This will probably be on the back of rising commodity prices and corporate dividend outflows.”
According to Jean Mercier, chief economist at Citigroup, ” The surplus trade balance figure took me off guard. I had anticipated a R2,3-billion deficit. This bodes well for South Africa’s current account deficit as it would seem that exports picked up faster than the previous months.” — Reuters, I-Net Bridge