Questions raised about reliability of SA export data

Much is being made about

South Africa’s growing

trade deficit with its trading

partners. But exactly how

reliable is South Africa’s

export data, particularly that

relating to Africa?

Not very reliable at all,

if you ask Peter Draper,

director of Tutwa

Consulting and

senior research

fellow in the

Economic

Diplomacy

programme

at the South

African Institute of

International Affairs.

Speaking to FTW on

the sidelines of a Gauteng

Growth and Development

Agency (GGDA) event

recently, Draper expressed

confidence that import

data – supplied by the

South African Revenue

Service (Sars) – could

be relied on because

imports were a revenue

generator.

But figures

on goods being

exported needed

to be

taken

with a

pinch of salt, he

said. “Firstly, South

Africa is the ‘winner’

when it comes to most

of its trade with Africa –

importing far less than it

exports. But this could be

a skewed picture as the data

doesn’t show how many of

these are re-imports,” Draper

pointed out.

Furthermore, while most

of the exports to Africa

emanate from the Gauteng

province, it is likely they are

produced/mined elsewhere.

“Often the head offices are

based in Gauteng but

the manufacturing

plants or the mines

are based in other

provinces – like the

agricultural produce

from Limpopo or the

Western Cape for example,”

he said.

According to Draper, the

SA Trade Index offers the

most reliable export data.

He noted that they were

also trying to iron out the

discrepancies in the data and

provide an improved and

bigger picture.

CAPTION

Port of Cape Town... containers in, containers out.