First Annual Figures For UK Trade 2009

The UK Trade deficit in goods and services in December 2009 was £3.3bn and in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2009 the deficit was £9.5bn. In November the figures were £2.9bn and £8.1bn respectively. In December 2008 it was £2bn.

The total balance of trade in goods and services with the world was a deficit of £7.3bn. The geographical pattern was that trade with the EU produced a deficit of £3.7bn and non-EU trade left a deficit of £3.6bn. The balance of trade in services left a surplus of £4bn. EU trade increased slightly and then remained the same over the last three months whereas non-EU trade decreased then increased again in December. The trend of growth in services has continued.

The first annual data for the whole of 2009 show that the trade deficit in goods and services narrowed by £4.4bn to £33.8bn in 2009. In 2008 it was £38.2bn. Trade in services, which is also included in the overall figure, in contrast, reported a surplus of £48.1bn in 2009. The surplus in trade in services decreased from a surplus of £55.1bn in 2008.

The deficit with EU countries narrowed by £2.5bn to £37bn in 2009 from £39.5bn in 2008. The non-EU deficit narrowed from £53.9bn in 2008 to December4.9bn in 2009, a difference of £9bn. The UKs most significant export trading partner outside the EU was the USA (£33.8bn) followed by Germany (£24.4bn). On imports it was the other way around. We imported more from Germany (£39.7bn) than anywhere else with USA second (£24.6bn).

There was a deficit in value on trade in goods of £7.3bn. Exports rose by £0.9bn, imports rose by £1.4bn. There were no great changes in the level of exports to any country over £0.2bn.

In terms of imports and exports, the volume of exports increased by 1%, imports by 4.5% in December. In Q4, the volume of exports increased by 5.8% and imports 7.2%. The price of exports increased by 0.1% and import 0.3% in December compared with November leading to a decrease in terms of trade. Over the quarter, export prices increased by 2% and import prices by 2.1%, leaving the terms of trade unchanged.