South African current account deficit widens

South Africa’s current account deficit widened to four percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter from a 2.9 percent shortfall in the first three months of the year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The quarterly deficit was wider than the average three percent of GDP forecast by economists surveyed by Reuters.

The quarterly trade balance swung to a deficit of 27.2 billion rand ($1.8 billion) in the second quarter from a surplus of 41.9 billion rand in the previous three months.