South Africa Trade Surplus Narrows in October

2025-11-28 12:15 By Luisa Carvalho 1 min. read

South Africa's trade surplus shrank to ZAR 15.6 billion in October 2025 from an upwardly revised ZAR 22.3 billion in the prior month.

Imports jumped by 7.2% over a month to ZAR 176.6 billion, on account of mineral products (+15%), namely crude oil; precious metals & stones (+29%); original equipment components (+18%); base metals (+18%) and vehicles transport equipment (+8%).

Imports increased from Africa (+20%) and Asia (+12.4%), but fell from Europe (-3.5%) and the Americas (-1.2%).

Meanwhile, exports rose at a slower 2.8% to ZAR 192.2 billion, mainly boosted by shipments of precious metals & stones (+21%), of which gold, diamonds, and unwrought aluminium; and base metals (+21%).

Conversely, exports declined sharply for vegetable products (-35%).

Overseas sales went up to Africa (+8.3%), but decreased to all other destinations including the Americas (-7.9%), Asia (-2.6%), Europe (-4.1%) and Oceania (-10.2%).



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