{"id":11699,"date":"2012-06-21T11:37:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T09:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/update-1-s-africa-current-ac-deficit-widens-to-4-9-pct-of-gdp\/"},"modified":"2012-06-21T11:37:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T09:37:45","slug":"update-1-s-africa-current-ac-deficit-widens-to-4-9-pct-of-gdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africa-current-ac-deficit-widens-to-4-9-pct-of-gdp\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa current a\/c deficit widens to 4.9 pct of GDP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Adds details)<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG, June 21<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; The deficit on South<br \/>\nAfrica&#8217;s current account widened to 4.9 percent of gross<br \/>\ndomestic product in the first quarter, its biggest in more than<br \/>\nthree years, mainly because of higher net dividend payments to<br \/>\noff-shore investors in the quarter.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In its June Quarterly Bulletin which reports on data from<br \/>\nthe first quarter, the South African Reserve Bank said on<br \/>\nThursday the shortfall on the current account had expanded from<br \/>\n3.6 percent in the previous quarter.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A stronger rand and lower domestic supply had led to smaller<br \/>\nexport proceeds over the first quarter.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The value of export earnings contracted by 2.4 percent in<br \/>\nthe first quarter compared to 6.4 percent expansion in the<br \/>\nfourth quarter of last year as prices fell in tandem with a 0.4<br \/>\npercent contraction in volumes, which were hampered by lower<br \/>\ndemand and domestic supply constraints, especially in the mining<br \/>\nsector.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Merchandise imports nudged up 0.3 percent in value and the<br \/>\nprice of imports declined due to lower inflation in the trading<br \/>\ncountries and a firmer rand in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Reserve Bank said the pace of foreign portfolio capital<br \/>\ninflows increased in the first three months of the year compared<br \/>\nto the last quarter of 2011, resulting in 50.5 billion rand of<br \/>\nflows compared to 19.9 billion rand in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The bank said the gap in the current account continued to be<br \/>\nadequately funded by foreign inflows.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Xola Potelwa; Editing by Ed Cropley)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Adds details) JOHANNESBURG, June 21 (Reuters) &#8211; The deficit on South Africa&#8217;s current account widened to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product in the first quarter, its biggest in more than three years, mainly because of higher net dividend payments to off-shore investors in the quarter. In its June Quarterly Bulletin which reports on data [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}