China And Hong Kong Help UK Trade

The UK trade deficit grew from £1.8bn in August 2014 to £2.8bn in September 2014 according to estimates from the ONS. The deficit is made up of a deficit of £9.8bn on goods and a surplus of £7bn on services.

Over the month the trade in goods deficit increased by £0.9bn as exports increased but imports particularly from countries outside the EU increased even more.

The quarterly comparison shows that between Q2 and Q3 2014 the trade in goods deficit increased also by £0.9bn to £29bn. Exports fell by £0.3bn and imports increased by £0.6bn.

The UKs largest trading partner in terms of the value of goods exported and imported remains Germany but Q3 2014 recorded the largest ever deficit with Germany due to falling exports and rising imports. The UK surplus with the US hit an 8 year low but it was partially offset by better trade figures with China and Hong Kong.

Trade Deficit In Goods Now £27.4bn

The deficit on UK trade in goods widened by £0.9bn to £27.4bn in Q2 2014 compared with a deficit of £26.5bn in Q1 2014. There was a change in value of -£0.5bn or 0.7% in total exports to £71.3bn and a change of -£0.4bn or 0.4% to £98.7bn in total imports in Q2 2014.

At the level of the change in value by industry, exports in agriculture, forestry and fishing products fell by £45m and imports fell by £9m. Information and communications services exports increased by £25m and imports also increased by £2m. In professional, scientific and technical services exports fell by £3m and imports fell by £1m. Arts, entertainment and recreation imports increased by £91m and imports fell by £198m.

Trade Deficit Down To £1.3bn In March

Trade activity in March 2014 reported a deficit of £ 1.3bn compared with February's deficit of £1.7bn. The figure of £1.3bn is a result of a deficit of £8.5bn in trade in goods and a surplus of £7.2bn in trade in services.

Exports increased by 4.9% and imports by 2.8% between February and March 2014. The increase in exports to £24.6bn was due to increases in the export of finished manufactures, jewellery and cars. The increase in imports to £33.1bn was mainly due to an increase in the import of aircraft.

The quarterly comparison for Q1 2014 shows a decrease of 3.7% to £72bn in the export of goods and of 2.8% to £98.7bn in imports.

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.

Trade Deficit Narrows By £0.3bn

The UK deficit on trade in goods and services in November was estimated to have been £3.2bn compared with a £3.5bn deficit in October according to the latest ONS UK Trade statistics bulletin. There was a deficit of £9.4bn on goods which was offset by a surplus of £6.2bn on services.

Euro September Trade Up

The euro area had an international trade in goods surplus of 13.1bn euro in September 2013 according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. This compares with a surplus of 8.6m euro in September 2012. September's surplus also compares well with the 6.9bn euro surplus of August 2013. Seasonally adjusted exports rose by 1% in September 2013 when compared with August but imports fell by 0.3%.

Early estimates also suggest that extra-EU28 trade in goods showed a 0.6bn euro surplus compared with a deficit of 14.5bn euro in September 2012. Seasonally adjusted exports rose by 0.2% while imports fell by 0.2%.

UK Record Trade Deficit With EU

The latest UK trade figures were recently published by the ONS. The UK deficit on trade in goods and services in September 2013 was estimated to have been £3.3bn the same as it was in August. The figure is made up of a deficit of £9.8bn on goods and a surplus of £6.5bn on services.

Exports of goods to EU countries decreased by £0.3bn in September while imports increased by £0.4bn. Overall trade in goods with the EU has reached an record deficit of £6bn.

European Current Account 21.8bn Euro Surplus

The latest EU balance of payments figures published by Eurostat show that the EU27 recorded a current account surplus of 21.8bn euro in Q1 of 2013. In the first quarter of 2012 there was a deficit of 7.7bn.

The 32.8bn euro deficit on goods in Q1 2012 became a surplus of 0.8bn euro in Q1 2013. The surplus on services fell from 31.2bn euro to 29.8bn euro.

Reduction In UK Trade Deficit

The UK trade deficit in goods and services decreased to £3.1bn in March compared with the £3.4bn deficit in February. The deficit on trade in goods of £9.1bn was partially offset by a trade surplus in services of £5.9bn. The export of services was estimated at £15.6bn and imports £9.7bn. The estimated surplus on trade in services in Q1 2013 was £17.4bn with total exports £46.3bn and total imports £28.9bn.

UK Trade Deficit £3.6bn

The trade deficit in goods and services grew to £3.6bn in February from £2.5bn in January. There was a deficit of £9.4bn on goods and a surplus of £5.8bn on services.

The value of exports fell by 1.1% over the month between January and February 2013 and the value of imports increased by 1.7% over the same period. Exports to non-EU countries fell by 4.7%. Exports to the US which makes up part of that decrease fell by £329m.

The figures reflect a fall in non-ferrous metals exports and a fall in the export of pharmaceuticals and a rise in the import of pharmaceuticals and an increase in the import of motor vehicles. Export prices rose by 1.8% and import prices rose by 1.6%.

Agricultural Prices Down In October

In the Defra API outputs monthly series for October 2012 the total outputs index was 178.6 from 180.1 in September, a fall of 0.8% in the month but there was an increase of 8.7% over the year. In the inputs monthly series the index was 153 from 153.6 the previous month giving a -0.4% change in prices but an increase of 1.2% over the year. There was 0.7% fall in costs of goods and services currently consumed in production from 159.7 to 158.6 over the month.

The agricultural prices index (API) output prices are divided into major crops prices which increased 0.9% over the month giving an index of 201.7 (199.9=2011) and an increase of 0.9% (16.7%) and livestock and livestock products which increased to 162.3 (161.8) or 0.3% (2.5%). These prices reflect what farmers receive for their products.

Animal feed prices, which are a key indicator, showed a 6.3% change in the price of these inputs whereas prices for animal and animal products showed only a 2.5% change in the output price.

Input prices are divided into goods and services currently consumed (eg. fertiliser and seed) which had an index of 158.6 (159.7) or -0.7% (1.3%) and goods and services contributing to investment (eg. tractors and buildings) which had an index of 123.3 (123.1) an increase of 0.2% (0.6%). These are a reflection of the prices farmers have to pay for goods and services.

The outputs annual series index stood at 165.6 in 2011 (145.9 - 2010) with crop products at 152.3 (133.3) and livestock and livestock products at 154.7 (141.4). The inputs annual series stood at 151.2 in 2011 (135.6 - 2010) with goods and services currently consumed at 157.1 (139.1) and goods and services contributing to investment at 122.5 (118.9).

UK Trade Deficit Increased To £3.6bn

The UK deficit on trade in goods and services was estimated at £3.6bn in October compared with £2.5bn in September 2012. The deficit of £9.5bn on trade in goods was offset by a surplus of £5.9bn on trade in services. Over the three months to October the deficit on trade in all products was £22.9bn, £0.5bn higher than the previous three months.

Services Surplus But Trade Deficit Increases

The UK's seasonally adjusted trade in goods and services deficit increased to £3.4bn in February 2012 from £2.5bn in January. Trade in goods was in deficit by £8.8bn. The surplus on trade in services in February was an estimated £5.4bn, the same as January.

UK Trade Deficit £2.6bn

The UK seasonally adjusted trade deficit in goods and services in November was £2.6bn compared with £1.9bn for October 2011. Trade in goods was £8.6bn in deficit but the surplus on trade in services was £6.1bn. The volume of exports was down 1.7% and the volume of imports was up 1.1%. The prices of both exports and imports of goods fell by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.

Trade Deficit Narrowed To £1.6bn In October

The seasonally adjusted trade in goods and services deficit was £1.6bn in October down from £4.3bn in September according to the ONS. It is the smallest deficit since April.

The deficit on trade in goods amounted to £7.6bn and the surplus on trade in services amounted £6bn. Exports rose to a record £26.5bn and imports fell from the record £34.6bn in September to £34.1bn in October. Both import and export prices fell in October by 0.6% and 0.4% respectively.

There was a £2.1bn increase in exports of goods to both EU (£13.9bn) and non-EU (£12.6bn) countries.

The biggest changes in key commodity value between September and October were in exports of chemicals (+£596m) and capital goods (+£327) and imports of oil (+£276m). Consumer goods other than cars had the biggest downward change (-£246).

Services Trade Surplus Still Rising

The deficit on UK trade in goods and services fell to £1.9bn in August. The goods deficit fell to £7.8bn but the services trade surplus increased to £5.9bn. The volume of exports increased by 1.3%. Both import and export prices fell by 0.5% and 1.5% respectively.

Increase In UK Trade But Deficit Goes Up

The UK trade balance deficit increased from £3.1bn in April to £4.1bn in May due to a larger increase in imports than exports which also increased in May. The deficit on trade in goods was £8.5bn in May compared with £7.6bn in April and the surplus on trade in services was £4.4bn in May compared with £4.5bn in the previous month. Both the volume of exports and the volume of imports increased in May. Export volume increased by 1.9% and import volume by 6%. Prices of exports fell by 1.7% and the prices of imports fell by 0.4% which meant a decrease in the terms of trade.

CPI At 4.5% In April

CPI annual inflation in April stands at 4.5% up from 4% in March. The most significant contributions to the increase were air transport, alcohol and tobacco and gas. Downward pressure came from petrol and diesel, miscellaneous goods and services, clothing and footwear and communication. The RPI index recorded an annual inflaton rate of 5.2% down from 5.3% in March.

Surplus In Services But Trade Deficit Increases

The latest UK trade figures from the ONS show that in March 2011 there was a deficit on the value of trade in goods and services of £3bn compared with a £2.7bn deficit in February. Trade in goods showed a deficit of £7.7bn compared with £7bn in February. The surplus on trade in services was given as £4.7bn in March up from £4.3bn in February. The volume of exports in March was 3.4% down and imports 0.4% down on February. The price of exports rose by 1.1% and imports by 1.8% compared with February. Exports of services went up by £0.2bn to £13.8bn in March 2011 compared with February but imports fell by £0.2bn to £9.2bn. Over the year to March the trade surplus in services increased by £0.8bn to £12.9bn compared with £12.1bn in the previous quarter (Q4 2010). Total exports rose to £41bn but imports fell to £28.1bn.

UK Trade Takes A Dip In December

The seasomally adjusted deficit for UK trade increased in December 2010 from November's deficit of £3.9bn to £4.8bn. The deficit in goods was £9.2bn an increase of £0.7bn from the £8.5bn deficit in November. Services was in surplus again at £4.4bn down slightly from the £4.5bn reported in November.

The volume of exports was 1.3% lower in December and the volume of imports was 1.4% higher than in November. Both import and export prices rose in December. Exports rose by 1.1% and imports by 1.5%.