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.

Growth In The Services Sector

The latest services index from the ONS suggests that the services industry grew by 1.2% in November 2012 compared with November 2011. Three of the four main components were estimated to have grown. The biggest contributions to the growth were from government and other services with growth of 2% and distribution, hotels and restaurants with 2.7% growth. The monthly analysis says that between October and November there was no change in output.

Business services and finance grew by 0.6% over the year with the main contributions to the growth coming from administrative and support service activities with growth of 6.8% and other professional services up by 0.9%.

Confidence Growing In Service Sector

Confidence is growing in the service sector and firms are more optimistic than three months ago according to the latest services survey by the CBI. It is because business has generally been better and things are expected to continue improve in the coming months. Business are also employing more staff and spending more time on training. The business situation is better than it was three months ago according to consumer service providers. Volumes fell at a similar rate but values fell more slowly due to slower price deflation. Selling prices fell slightly but are expected to rise. Professional and business services firms were much more optimistic than the last quarter. There was an unexpected improvement in both business volumes and values and volumes are expected to continue to grow and growth in values is expected to strengthen. Profitability stabilised when it was expected to fall and is expected to grow in the next quarter.

Service Sector The Biggest Employer In Europe

The latest Labour Force Survey from Eurostat says that almost 70% of employed persons in the EU27 were employed in the service sector in 2011. The latest figure compares with 62% in 2000. Market services accounted for 39%, non-market services 30%, industry and construction 25% and agriculture 5%. Market services includes trade and transportation, financial services, administration and support services, professional and scientific services, accomodation and food services and non-market services include public administration, arts, entertainment and recreation, education and health.

Services Growth 0.8%

The index of services for February 2012 from the ONS increased by 0.8% compared with February 2011. The largest contributions to the increase of the three sectors that increased were from business services and finance and government and other services both of which grew by 1.1%. On the monthly analysis the sector fell by 0.4%. The increase in business services and finance came mainly from professional services activities with an increase of 5.1% and administrative and support activities with 4% growth. Government and other services increase came mainly from increases in human health and social work activities which increased by 2.3%. The only one of the four major components of the index to see a decrease was distribution, hotels and restaurants which fell by 0.2%.