South Africa had a trade surplus of R93.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, down from R101 billion in the third quarter of 2021. Year-on-year, imports increased by about 17% to R381 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, while exports increased by about 9% to R475 billion in the same period. Trade, and especially imports, saw a recovery following the early negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start 2020. Imports reached their highest fourth quarter level since peaking at R389 billion in 2014, and exports also continued their growth trajectory, reaching their highest fourth quarter level in 2021.

This Import Tracker has an overview of the year. See Section 2: Summary of Trends from 2021.