The UK still has a deficit on trade in goods and services. In April the deficit was £3.3bn compared with £3.2bn in March. The deficit on trade in goods was £7.3bn but services still reported a surplus of £4bn compared with £4.1bn in March. Total exports of services fell by £0.1bn to £13.4bn and imports of services fell to £9.4bn.
Comparing April with March 2010 the main contributors to the difference were an increase of £171m from the export of cars, £130m from the export of chemicals and £125m from the export of consumer goods. There were decreases of £194m in intermediate goods and £201m in the export of aircraft. Sectors that made a significant difference on the import side were ships with an increase in value of £225m and £249m from the import of oil. Offsetting these were a decrease in the import semi-manufactured goods (other than chemicals) to the value of £392m and a decrease to the value of £159m from the import of consumer goods (other than cars).
The deficit on trade in goods with the EU increased slightly in April by £0.1bn to £3.3bn . Over the three months to April the deficit was £1.2bn smaller at £9.4bn. EU exports increased by £1.3bn to £34.4bn and EU imports by £0.1bn to £43.9bn.
As export prices fell by 0.2% and import prices increased by 0.2% in April compared with March, there was a decrease in the terms of trade. If oil is excluded, export prices fell by 1% and import prices fell by 0.2%. Over the quarter, there was a decrease in the terms of trade as export prices increased by 3.3% and import prices increased by 3.6%. Expoprt prices increased by 2.5% and import prices by 2.8% if the oil price effect is excluded. The balance of trade in oil in April was a deficit of £0.4bn. Oil exports were £2.7bn and imports £3.1bn. Over the quarter the balance of trade in oil was in deficit by £0.7bn. There was an increase in value of £0.6bn in exports to £7.9bn and an increase of £0.7bn in imports to £8.6bn.
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