Trade Deficit Narrows To £2.1bn

The deficit in the UK trade figures narrowed by £0.1bn from £2.2bn in January to £2.1bn in February. The deficit of £9.1bn in trade in goods was partially offset by the trade surplus in trade in services of £7bn. The trade balance reflects the exports minus imports position. The statistical bulletin from the ONS also advises data users to refer to the three monthly figures because of imports of erratic commodities such as ships, aircraft, precious stones and silver skewing the trade statistics and because trade statistics for a month can be misleading.

The impact can be seen in the three months to February which saw exports of goods decrease to £72.7bn (2.5%) due to falls across a range of commodities. Imports fell by 4.7% to £99bn over the same period due to a decrease in semi-manufactures and fuel. The estimated trade in services was £7bn with exports of £17bn and imports of £10bn. The three months to February saw an estimated surplus of £21.4bn in trade in services.