South Africa September Trade Deficit Exceeds Forecast

(RTTNews) - South Africa recorded a bigger-than-expected trade deficit in September as the country's merchandise exports decreased sharply, latest data showed Thursday.

The net trade for September resulted in a deficit of ZAR18.94 billion, data released by the South African Revenue Services showed Thursday. Economists were looking for a shortfall of ZAR16.4 billion.

Merchandise exports fell 6 percent month-on-month to ZAR4.23 billion in September. The value of imports dropped by 4.9 percent to ZAR4.39 billion.

During the nine months ended September, the balance was a deficit of ZAR126.37 billion, higher than the ZAR83.6 billion deficit recorded a year earlier.

Separately, data released by Statistics South Africa today showed that factory gate inflation stayed unchanged at 6.7 percent in September. Intermediate goods prices rose 7.9 percent annually, and costs of electricity and water climbed 12.9 percent. Prices in the mining sector grew by 4.1 percent.

Month-on-month, producer prices in the manufacturing sector advanced 0.4 percent in September, the agency said.