Pretoria, Sep 4 - South Africa's current account deficit has decreased, BuaNews reported Friday quoting the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

'The negative imbalance on the current account of the balance of payments improved from 7 percent of gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2009 to 3.2 percent in the second quarter,' said the Reserve Bank in its September quarterly bulletin.

The current account is the difference between a country's imports and exports of goods. It also includes the payment of services and income received or paid to foreigners.

The Reserve Bank attributed the decrease to the trade balance coming into a surplus for the second quarter.

The central bank said the volume of merchandise imports decreased from 24.4 percent in the first quarter of the year to 21.4 percent in the second quarter which is significantly lower that the recent peak of 28.1 percent that was recorded in the third quarter of 2008.

The bank said that the balance on the financial account as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product decreased to 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2009 from 6.1 percent in the first quarter.