South Africa continues to be reliant on a relatively small number of key export items – platinum, gold, coal and iron ore. Outside of the mining sector, there have only been a few export success stories; such as fruit, wine and motor vehicles, with the latter benefiting from large indirect subsidies.
In general, growth in exports of these items has been insufficient to drive much higher aggregate export growth. So in addition to our poor export performance a further concern is the lack of diversification of the country’s exports despite significant resources flowing into industrial policy. We have seen growth in the services sector, which is positive.