{"id":693067,"date":"2023-06-01T09:35:41","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T07:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=693067"},"modified":"2023-06-01T09:35:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T07:35:41","slug":"south-africas-trade-balance-dives-by-r81-5-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/693067\/south-africas-trade-balance-dives-by-r81-5-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s trade balance dives by R81.5 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa recorded a preliminary trade balance surplus of R3.5 billion in April 2023, a significant reduction from the prior year.<\/p>\n

The South African Revenue Service said that the surplus is attributable to exports of R163.8 billion and imports of R160.3 billion, when including trade with Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and
\nNamibia (BELN).<\/p>\n

The year-to-date (01 January to 30 April 2023) preliminary trade balance deficit of R3.5 billion is a drop from the R78 billion trade balance surplus that was recorded over the comparable period in 2022 – an R81.5 billion drop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although export flows of R163.8 billion for April 2023 were 7.4% higher than the R152.6 billion for April 2022, import flows jumped 17.5% from R136.1 billion in April 2022 to R160.3 billion in April 2023.<\/p>\n

On a month-to-month basis, exports dropped from R191.7 billion to R163.8 billion between March and April 2023 – a R27.9 billion (14.5%) decrease.<\/p>\n

Imports also decreased from R185.4 billion to R160.3 billion – a R25.1 billion (13.5%) drop.<\/p>\n

Following the ongoing Vouchers of Correction (VOC), the preliminary trade balance surplus of March 2023 was revised downwards to R6.3 billion from R6.9 billion.<\/p>\n

Across the month, export flows decreased, which was driven by gold and platinum, whilst the value of imports decreased following less crude oil and petroleum oil importation.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

When excluding trade from BELN, April 2023 recorded a preliminary trade balance deficit of R5.6 billion, as export flows only reached R149.9 billion while import flows were recorded at R155.5 billion.<\/p>\n

The preliminary cumulative trade balance deficit of 2023 was R41.6 billion, a significant drop from the R41.8 billion trade surplus recorded during the same period in 2022.<\/p>\n

On a month-to-basis, exports and imports decreased by R24.3 billion (13.9%) and R24.6 billion (13.7%), respectively.<\/p>\n

Regarding trading partners, China was South Africa’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 11.7% of exports and 21.9% of imports.<\/p>\n

The U.S. was South Africa’s second-biggest trading partner, totalling 8.6% of exports and 8.8% of imports.<\/p>\n

In terms of imports, Germany (8.1%), India (5.9%) and Japan (5.1%) completed the top five.<\/p>\n

For exports, the top five also featured Germany (7.3%), India (5.8%), and United Arab Emirates (3.6%).<\/p>\n

Some positives\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the overall drop in trade activity, the trade statistics with the BELN counties continue to remain strong, with a trade surplus of R9.1 billion recorded in APril 2023.<\/p>\n

Exports with BELN totalled R13.9 billion, while imports totalled R4.8 billion.<\/p>\n

Although exports\u00a0 – R3.6 billion (20.5%) – and imports – R0.5 billion (9.7%) – decreased from March, the preliminary cumulative trade balance surplus for 2023 stands at R38.1 billion compared to R36.2 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the heads of revenue administrations in the BELN nations and South Africa agreed to recognise imports and exports between the countries by granting the status of an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO).<\/p>\n

This will allow for trade between the nations to be fast-tracked, with administration costs reduced for customs clearance.<\/p>\n

\n

Read<\/strong>: SARS has a R90 billion leak that it\u2019s struggling to plug<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s year-to-date by April 2023 is far lower than it was over the same period in 2022. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":669465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-693067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693067"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":693109,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693067\/revisions\/693109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}