South Africa’s August trade deficit widens to 19.05 billion rand

Exports fell by 7.6 percent from July to August while imports were down 0.1 percent. Economists had expected a 12.5 billion rand deficit in the trade account but the number is volatile and hard to predict. The cumulative deficit for the year now stands at 107.31 billion rand compared with 69.91 billion rand over the same period in 2012. (Reuters)