Pretoria, 29 March 2018 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for February 2018 recording a trade balance surplus of R0.43 billion. These statistics include trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS). The year-to-date (01 January to 28 February 2018) trade balance deficit of R26.69 billion is a deterioration on the deficit for the comparable period in 2017 of R7.59 billion. Exports year-to-date grew by 3.1% whilst imports for the same period showed an increase of 14.0%.