South Africa’s Current-Account Deficit Widens to 6.8% of GDP
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South Africa’s current-account deficit widened to 6.8 percent of gross domestic product in the third quarter, the biggest gap in more than five years, as a weak rand boosted import costs while strikes and subdued global demand hurt exports.
The gap in the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, grew to an annualized 233 billion rand ($22.6 billion), the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin, released today in the capital, Pretoria. The median estimate of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a deficit of 6 percent of GDP. The second-quarter shortfall was revised to 5.9 percent from 6.5 percent.