JOHANNESBURG Feb 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s trade
account recorded a 13.5 billion rand ($1.79 billion) deficit in
January compared with a surplus of 4.7 billion rand in December,
the South African Revenue Service said on Wednesday.
The trade deficit was at 4.9 billion rand in January 2011.
Exports fell by 14.3 percent month-on-month to 8.98 billion
rand in January this year while imports went up by 15.8 percent
to 9.23 billion rand, SARS data showed.
Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a shortfall of 3.8
billion rand for January but the data is volatile and thus hard
to forecast.
(Reporting by Xola Potelwa; Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa)
© Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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