South Africa trade gap widens in October to nine-month record

Johannesburg: South Africa’s trade deficit widened in October to the biggest gap since January as imports of machinery and oil climbed. The trade shortfall increased to 21.4 billion rand ($1.5 billion; Dh5.44 billion) from a revised 1.3 billion rand in September, the Pretoria-based South African Revenue Service said in an emailed statement on Monday.

The median of 12 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for a shortfall of 7.8 billion rand. The deficit for the first 10 months of the year was 59.4 billion rand compared with 95.1 billion rand in 2014. The gap on the trade account will keep pressure on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, and the rand, which fell to a record against the dollar in November. The benefit to exports of the currency’s 20 per cent drop against the dollar in 2015 is partly offset by falling metal prices, low global demand and power shortages in Africa’s most-industrialised economy.