Central Banks
South Africa Current-Account Gap Narrows, Beating Estimates
- Second quarter deficit at 0.9% of GDP vs 1% estimate
- Widened trade surplus contributed to the smaller deficit
The Port of Cape Town.
Photographer: Dwayne Senior/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
South Africa’s current-account deficit narrowed more than expected in the second quarter as the rand price of exported goods and services increased more than that of imports.
The gap on the current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, shrank to an annualized 0.9% of gross domestic product, or 64.6 billion rand ($3.6 billion) from a revised 1.5% of GDP in the prior quarter, the South African Reserve Bank said in a statement Thursday.