Pretoria, 31 July 2018 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for June 2018 recording a trade balance surplus of R12.00 billion. These statistics include trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS). The year-to-date (01 January to 30 June 2018) trade balance deficit of R1.79 billion is a deterioration on the surplus for the comparable period in 2017 of R25.00 billion. Exports year-to-date increased by 1.5% whilst imports for the same period showed an increase of 6.6%.