South Africa’s trade surplus with the rest of the world more than doubled to R183 billion in the first quarter of 2024, the SA Reserve Bank reports in its latest Quarterly Bulletin.
It is the first time that the country will record a surplus in 15 years, mainly due to tighter fiscal control of state-owned entities which, over the years, have negatively weighed on the balance of revenue vs expenses.
According to the central bank, the value of merchandise imports decreased while that of merchandise and net gold exports increased marginally.
“The decrease in the value of merchandise imports reflected lower volumes while the increase in the value of exports reflected higher prices.
“Consequently, South Africa’s terms of trade improved in the first quarter of 2024 as the rand price of exported goods and services increased more than that of imports.
“The slight increase in the value of merchandise exports in the first quarter of 2024 resulted from increases in the value of mining and agricultural exports, which marginally outweighed the decrease in the value of manufacturing exports.
“The higher mining exports largely reflected an increase in mineral exports, notably manganese ore, refined petroleum products and iron ore.”
Unfortunately, along with the good there is also bad news.
“The lower value of manufacturing exports resulted largely from reduced exports of vehicles and transport equipment, chemical products as well as machinery and electrical equipment,” the bulletin reports.
“The decrease in the value of merchandise imports in the first quarter of 2024 reflected lower imports of mining and agricultural products while manufacturing imports increased.
“Mining imports were weighed down by a sharp decrease in mineral products, which reflected base effects following considerable increases in imported crude oil and refined petroleum products in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“The higher value of manufacturing imports resulted from increased imports of most manufactured products, except for vehicles and transport equipment.”
