South Africa's August trade deficit widens to 19.05 bln rand

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's trade shortfall unexpectedly widened to 19.05 billion rand in August, the biggest gap in seven months, after a 14.21 billion rand deficit in July, the South African Revenue Service said on Monday. 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. AUGUST TRADE WORLD ZONES TRADE BALANCE EXPORTS IMPORTS R'bln % of total % of total Africa 5.276 18.72 8.87 Europe -10.949 24.27 31.32 America -1.229 11.9 10.75 Asia -17.366 35.82 47.57 Oceania -0.489 1.12 1.43 Other unclassified goods 5.601 8.02 0.08 Ships/Aircraft stores 0.102 0.14 - ($1 = 10.0775 South African rand)