South Africa’s November trade deficit narrows as oil imports plunge

South Africa’s trade deficit narrowed in November, as a plunge in oil prices curbed crude imports.

The shortfall contracted to 5.7 billion rand ($490m) from 21.3 billion rand in October, the Pretoria-based South African Revenue Service said in a statement Tuesday.

The price of Brent crude oil has slumped by more than half in the past six months to trade as low as $56.74 a barrel. Imports of mineral products, which include mainly oil, dropped by 9.4 billion rand, or 33 percent, in November from the previous month, data from the tax agency shows.

While the drop in imports may help to ease pressure on the current-account deficit, the trade shortfall for the first 11 months of the year is still almost 40 percent higher than it was in the same period last year at 101.1 billion rand. That’s contributed to the weakness in the rand, which has depreciated 9.9 percent against the dollar this year.

Imports fell 19 percent to 89.7 billion rand, led by a drop in oil, a 29 percent plunge in equipment component purchases and an 18 percent decline in imports of vehicles and transport equipment, the agency said.

Exports decreased 5.3 percent to 83.95 billion rand in October, as a 7.3 percent increase in precious metals was offset by a 9.8 percent drop in shipments of mineral products, which includes iron ore and coal.

The monthly trade figures are often volatile, reflecting the timing of shipments of commodities such as oil and diamonds.