Botswana continued to experience a trade deficit despite the recovery in rough and polished diamond exports.
The country started experiencing trade deficit in October 2008, when diamond exports tumbled due to global economic recession.
Diamond exports accounted for over 70 percent of Botswana’s exports.
Figures released by Statistics Botswana showed that although the country’s diamond exports upped in February this year, the recovery did nothing to offset the trade deficit.
Diamond exports jumped from BWP2.5 billion ($338,2 million) to BWP2.8 billion ($379 million) between January and February, from a low of BWP1.8 billion ($246 million) in December 2011.
However, the southern African country recorded a trade imbalance of BWP600.8 million ($81.2 million) during the month of February from BWP653.4 million ($88.4 million) in January.
Botswana's imports were valued at BWP4.2 billion ($568.2 million) in February against exports of BWP3.6 billion ($487 million) of which 77.5 percent were attributable to diamonds.
These figures, however, differed from the ones issued out by the Bank of Botswana due to what local media described as “methodological issues”.
Bank of Botswana’s data for the same period indicated that the country had exported diamonds worth BWP2.2 billion ($298 million) up from BWP806 million ($109 million) in January 2012.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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