South Africa Rand Pares Gain as Trade Gap Swells to Near Record

By Garth Theunissen

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa's rand pared gains after a government report showed the country's trade deficit widened to near record levels last month.

The rand traded at 7.7144 by 2:06 p.m. in Johannesburg, from 7.6738 before the report and 7.7292 late yesterday. Earlier, it traded at a one-week high of 7.6573, or 0.9 percent stronger than yesterday.

South Africa's trade gap swelled to 14.3 billion rand ($1.9 billion) in July from 200 million rand a month earlier, the South African Revenue Service said in an e-mail today. The shortfall was higher than the 3.8 billion rand median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg and close to a high of 14.7 billion rand reached in October 2007.

To contact the reporter on this story: Garth Theunissen in Johannesburg gtheunissen@bloomberg.net.