From Bloomberg Africa

South Africa posted a trade deficit for the first time in three months in January as oil imports surged and exporters failed to take full advantage of the weaker rand.

The trade balance switched to a deficit of 17.1 billion rand ($1.6 billion) in January compared with a revised surplus of 2.6 billion rand in December, the Pretoria-based South Africa Revenue Service said in an e-mailed statement today. The median estimate of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a deficit of 12.2 billion rand.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan told lawmakers in Cape Town this week the current-account deficit for 2013 was probably 6.1 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 5.2 percent a year earlier. The gap is forecast to narrow to 5.5 percent of GDP in 2016. The cumulative trade deficit more than doubled to 69.9 billion rand in 2013.

Written by Rene Vollgraaff/Read more at Bloomberg Africa