Pretoria, 31 May 2018 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for April 2018 recording a trade balance surplus of R1.14 billion. These statistics include trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS). The year-to-date (01 January to 30 April 2018) trade balance deficit of R17.65 billion is a deterioration on the surplus for the comparable period in 2017 of R8.52 billion. Exports year-to-date decreased by 0.3% whilst imports for the same period showed an increase of 7.2%.