South African merchandise trade moved into positive territory for the first time in March this year, according to the latest figures released by the South African Revenue Service (Sars). This follows a revision of the February statistics, with exports being reduced by R1.03 billion and the negative balance to R-603 279 246. Total preliminary merchandise exports for March were R98 287 063 534, and imports R90 616 628 143 – bringing the surplus to R9 474 444 693.
Preliminary figures for January to March show a nett merchandise trade imbalance of R-18 632 495 941, compared to a surplus of R4 217 094 643 for the first quarter of 2017.
Analysis of South Africa’s trade with Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) member countries shows that South Africa is reliant on exports to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS countries) to generate a surplus or at least to reduce the negative balance.