The current account will return to deficit in 2011 as the trade deficit widens. Import growth will accelerate to 11% owing to heavy demand for capital and intermediate goods for investment projects. Exports will increase by 10%-slower than previously forecast owing to a more modest increase in uranium exports. The surplus on the services account will widen as higher services imports for development projects will be more than offset by increased tourist arrivals and spending, but higher profit remittances (mostly by mining companies) will widen the income account deficit. The current transfers surplus will remain at the record level seen in 2010, SACU receipts not yet having begun their long-anticipated decline due to adjustments in the revenue-sharing formula. Overall, the current account is forecast to decline from rough balance in 2010 to a deficit of just under 1% of GDP in 2011.

In 2012 export growth will accelerate to 13%. The first full year of expanded capacity at Langer Heinrich and the Tsumeb smelter will increase exports of uranium and blister copper, and cement exports from the Ohorongo plant should reach the planned 400,000 tonnes/year. Imports will grow by 16% in response to faster economic growth and demand for capital equipment for at least two new uranium mines and a second desalination plant. If it receives approval, the long-delayed Kudu gas-to-power project will increase equipment imports. Currency depreciation will favour growth in tourism, offset by increased freight costs, keeping the services deficit stable. Rising profit remittances by foreign investors will push the income account further into deficit. The current transfers surplus will drop back as receipts from SACU fall. The larger deficits on the trade and income accounts and the narrower transfers surplus will push the current-account deficit to 4.1% of GDP.