South Africa announced a trade surplus of 457.8 million rand for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in March, which came as a huge surprise, contrasted with a 5.7 billion rand plunge recorded in February, the South African Revenue Service revealed on Friday.

However, a survey by I-Net Bridge discovered that 2.5 billion rand deficit had been quite expected.

In addition, it is reported that a whooping 17.4 billion rand deficit was set in January last year, however, a few surprise surpluses have been witnessed since then.

But a surprise surplus was least expected in March, prompted by companies who established their inventories ahead of the World Cup, which starts in June.

However, the forecasts made by the leading economists surveyed marked a significant variation from a 6.5 billion rand deficit to a 1.5 billion rand deficit.

The figures released depicted that mineral product imports marked a rise by one percent or 76 million rand, while that of chemicals and allied products registered a jump 15% or 672 million rand.

2009 witnessed a net deficit of 25.839 billion rand compared to the audited deficit of 71.634 billion (64.5 billion) announced in 2008.

However, a 69.940 billion rand deficit was witnessed in 2007 from a 68.642 billion rand deficit in 2006.