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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 To £1bn

Britain's trade deficit on goods and services was estimated to have been £1bn in December 2013 according to the ONS. This compares with a deficit of £3.6bn in November 2013. There was a deficit on goods of £7.7bn but a surplus of £6.7bn on services.

In terms of imports and exports, imports fell by 3.8% and exports grew by 2.1%. The biggest exports were in oil, chemicals and aircraft. There were falls in the import of aircraft and ships. Exports increased by 1.9% to £25bn between November and December 2013 while imports have decreased by 4.7% to £32.8bn.

Exports to countries outside the EU have increased 9.3% since July 2013 and imports have decreased by 9.6%.

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.

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.

Estimates Show Euro Area Trade Surplus

The first estimate from Eurostat for euro area trade with the world in November gave a surplus of 6.9bn euros. Exports rose by 3.9%. The EU27 reported a deficit of 7.2bn euros. Exports rose by 2.8%, but imports fell by 0.6%.

Euro Area Trade In Balance

The first estimate from Eurostat for euro area trade with the rest of the world in May 2011 was in balance. There was a deficit of 4.9bn euros for the same period last year. In April 2011 the deficit was 4.8bn euros. The EU27 is estimated to have had a deficit of 13.2bn euros in May 2011 compared with -16bn euros in May 2010. The April balance was a 16.4bn euros deficit in 2011 compared with 12bn euros deficit in 2010. The euro area's main trading partners between January and April 2011 in euro terms were the United States, United Kingdom and China. Russia saw a 33% growth in imports from EU17. The main trading partners with the EU27 were the United States and China.

Euro External Deficit Cut To 37.1bn

The EU27 had an external current account deficit of 37.1bn euro in Q2 2010 from 42.1bn euro in Q2 2009 and 31.8bn euro in Q1 2010. The trade in service balance was 19.3bn euro and the balance was -1.2% of GDP. In the euro area (EA16) the deficit was 23.1bn euro the balance of trade in services was 11.9bn euro and the balance as a percentage of GDP was 1%.

Reduction In Services Trade Surplus

The UK current account deficit on the balance of payments was £7.4bn for the second quarter of 2010 or -2% of GDP. The revised deficit for Q1 2010 was £11.3bn or -3.1% GDP. There was a deficit of £9.3bn with the EU compared with £11.2bn in Q1.

The deficit reduction was mainly due to an increase in the income surplus, partly offset by an increase in the trade in goods deficit and a reduction in the surplus on trade in services.

Quarterly World Merchandise Trade

There was a change of 27.2% in exports in world merchandise trade in the first quarter of 2010 and a change of 24.2% in imports according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) quarterly world merchandise statistics recent release. It compares with 3.8% in imports and -0.9% in exports for Q4 2010 and -31% and -29.9% respectively for Q1 2009.

Trade In Services Surplus Slightly Down

The Balance of Payments bulletin from the ONS for the first quarter of 2010 reported a current account deficit of £9.6bn as compared with a current account surplus of £0.5bn in Q4 2009. It is mainly due to a lower surplus on income, from £8.1bn to £3.8bn, and an increase of £1bn in deficit on current transfers, an increase of £0.5bn in trade in goods and a lower surplus on trade in services of £0.5bn to £12.5bn. The current account balance is equivalent to -2.7% of GDP.

The deficit in trade in goods and services equals -2.5% of GDP and the surplus on income is 1.1% of GDP. Trade in goods is in deficit by £21.7bn. Exports went up by £1.6bn and imports by £2.2bn. The semi-manufactured goods trade deficit increased by £0.8bn to £1.6bn and finished manufactured goods increased their deficit by £0.2bn to £13.5bn. The deficit in trade in oil narrowed by £0.4bn. The trade deficit in food, beverages and tobacco decreased by £0.3bn to £4.2bn.

The surplus on trade in services was £12.5bn, sightly lower than Q4 2009. Exports of services fell by £0.7bn to £39.1bn mainly due to a fall in the export of financial services, royalties and license fees and construction services. Imports fell by £0.2bn due to decreases in government services and construction services. These were partially offset by an increase in the import of financial services of £0.3bn.

The surplus on income fell to £3.8bn from £11.9bn in the previous quarter. Income credits were £41.5bn due to increased earnings on direct investment abroad. Income debits increased by £8.2bn to £37.6bn due to earnings on increased direct investment in the UK. Portfolio investment in the UK earnings increased by £1bn from £2.4bn to £3.4bn. UK earnings on portfolio investment abroad fell by £0.1bn to £11.6bn. The compensation of employees was £0.2bn. The surplus on direct investment income was down £6.6bn to £10bn. Earnings on direct investment abroad were £22bn due to monetary financial institutions going to profit from loss and increased earnings by financial intermediaries. Foreign earnings on direct investment in the UK increased by £7.7bn to £11.9bn. Foreign earnings on portfolio investment in the UK rose by £1bn to £15.1bn. Income on reserve assets was £0.2bn.

The current transfers deficit increased to £4.3bn due to an increase in UK's payments to EU institutions. The capital account showed an increase of £0.3bn to leave a surplus of £1.2bn.

Euro Area Trade Surplus Down On Year

The euro area had a trade surplus of 1.8bn euros with the rest of the world in April 2010 compared with a 2.6bn euro surplus in April 2009. Exports fell by 2.4% in April 2010 against March 2010 and imports fell by 3.5%. The first estimates for the EU27 report a 10.2bn euro trade deficit on an annual basis. On a monthly basis there was a deficit of 7.2bn euros. Imports fell by 2.8% and exports by 2.4%.

The figures for January to March 2010 show that the EU27 deficit for energy rose by 66.6bn euros but the surplus for manufactured goods rose by 35.9bn euros. EU27 exports to all of its major trading partners grew in January-March 2010 especially to China (+48%), Brazil (+43%) and Turkey (+41%). The biggest increase in imports was to Russia with 35%.

The EU27 trade surplus with the US increased by 14.2bn euros. The trade deficit with China decreased from 37bn euros to 34.6bn euros but increased with Russia from 10.5bn euros to 18.2bn euros. The largest total trade deficit was the UK with 24.9bn euros.

EU External Trade In March

The euro area trade balance first estimate gave a 4.5bn euro surplus with the rest of the world in March 2010. It was 1.6bn euros in March 2009 and 2.4bn in February 2010, revised from 2.6bn euros. The EU27 had an estimated 7.1bn euro deficit in March 2010 compared with -9.2bn euros deficit in March 2009. The deficit was 6.5bn euros in February 2010, revised from 6bn euros, compared with -10.8bn in February 2009.

The euro area consists of the 16 members states that have adopted the euro as their currency.

Services Surplus Narrower In February

The seasonally adjusted trade deficit narrowed significantly during February 2010. The deficit on trade in goods and services fell from £3.9bn in January to £2.1bn in February. Trade in goods was £6.2bn in February compared with £8.1bn in January but the surplus on trade in services was £4.1bn in February from £4.2bn in January.

Exports increased by 6.3% but imports fell 1.4%. The prices of exports went up 0.5% and imports went up 0.3% compared with January. Total exports in goods increased 9.5% or £1.8bn to £21.3bn. Total imports of goods fell to £27.5bn. The single biggest contributor to the change in exports was chemicals with an increase of £629m. Oil was the second biggest with exports increasing by £370m and imports increasing by £205m.

An analysis of trade with EU countries shows that the deficit on trade in goods with EU countries narrowed by £0.6bn to £2.8bn in February 2010 compared with a deficit of £3.4bn in January. EU exports increased to £11.5bn and imports to £14.4bn.

The biggest export commodity traded with the EU was oil which increased in value by £751m over the quarter to February. There were large increases in value in imports of cars (£274m), fuels other than oil (£438m), capital goods (£108m) and intermediate goods (£176m). Imports of chemicals fell £279m over the quarter.

More geographical analysis shows that within the G7 group of countries export trade with the US increased by £0.5bn and with Germany by £0.2bn between January and February 2010. Import trade increased with Norway by £0.3bn but decreased with South Africa by £0.2bn.

The change in the volume of exports excluding oil and erratics increased by 6.3% but the volume of imports fell by 1.4% between January and February 2010. At the commodity level the biggest changes were in basic materials where exports increased by 42.7% and chemicals which increased by 15.2%. Over the quarter the biggest changes were in the export of cars which increased by 10.9% and the import of semi-manufactured goods (other than chemicals) which increased by 10%.

Export prices rose by 0.5% in February and import prices by 0.3%. The terms of trade therefore increased. If the oil price effect is left out export prices rose by 0.7% and import prices by 0.5%. Over the quarter export prices rose by 1.6% and import prices by 1.2%. Again that means an increase in the terms of trade.

The surplus on trade in services narrowed to £4.1bn compared with £4.2bn in January. Exports fell by 1.4% to £13.1bn and imports by 7.7% to £8.9bn.

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.

UK Trade Deficit Down In August

The UK seasonally-adjusted trade deficit in August was £2.3bn, down from £2.6bn in July. The deficit in goods was £6.2bn and the surplus in services was £3.9bn. The seasonally-adjusted volume of exports excluding oil and erratics was 0.8% up and the volume of imports was 2.6% higher. Export prices of goods went up by 0.8% and imports by 1% in August compared with July.

The trade in services surplus increased by £0.1bn to £3.9bn in August. Exports in August increased by £0.1bn to £13.3bn and imports by less than £0.1bn to £9.4bn. Similarly, over the quarter to August, the surplus increased by £0.1bn to £11.5bn, exports increased by £0.1bn to £39.7bn and imports fell by £0.1bn to £28.2bn.

There were no export or import movements over £0.2bn within the G7 group but among other countries imports from South Africa fell by £0.3bn between July and August. Comparing the three months to August with the three months to May there were no export or import movements in excess of £0.4bn, but within the G7 countries, exports to France went up by £0.4bn and imports from the US fell by £0.7bn.

Trade Deficit Remains At £2.4bn.

There was no change in the UK's trade deficit in goods and services between June and July according to the latest ONS UK Trade survey, it remained at £2.4bn. Trade in goods was also unchanged on June at £6.5bn. The surplus from services fell slightly to £4bn from £4.1bn in June. Trade in the quarter left a deficit of £7.2 compared with £8.7bn in goods and services. The goods deficit was £19.3bn from £20.3bn and the services surplus was £12.1 compared with £11.6bn.

The deficit with EU countries fell by £0.2bn from July to £2.6bn with non-EU countries a £0.2bn difference made the deficit £3.9bn from £3.7bn. Exports to EU countries rose 6.5% and to non-EU countries by 3% while imports rose 3% from EU countries and non-EU 4.5%. Total exports rose to £19.2bn or by 5% and total imports by 3.5% to £25.7bn.

The values are generated by a rise in volume of exports of 5% and of imports 2.5%. In the quarter to July there had been a fall in exports of 1% and imports of 2%. Export trends show both imports and exports falling slightly in recent months.

Prices for both imports and exports have also fallen slightly in recent months. In the quarter to July export prices fell by 0.5% and imports by 1.5% leading to an increase in terms of trade.

Services Trade Surplus

The trade deficit in goods and services for April was £3 billion compared with £2.7 billion in March. The balance on trade in goods showed a deficit of £7 bn. The balance of trade in services showed a surplus of £4 bn on the month and £12.1 bn on the quarter. Total exports of goods were £18.9 bn and total imports were £25.9 bn. The trade deficit for the quarter narrowed by £2.3 bn to £20.2 bn. Exports and imports on a world basis both rose by 3%. Exports to the USA and Italy were up but fell to Germany and France. Imports from Germany, Canada and Italy all fell by £0.1 bn but imports from Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland all increased by £0.1 bn. All the information from the ONS on UK Trade is on a balance of payments basis.

Fall In UK Trade Deficit

The UK's trade deficit has narrowed by £0.3bn to £2.5bn from £2.8bn in February. In the first quarter however the deficit increased to £8.3bn from 8.0% in the previous quarter. The deficit on trade in goods is estimated at £6.6bn for March with services showing a surplus of £4.1bn again as in February. The deficit on goods for the quarter was £21.1bn from £22.7bn the surplus on services being £12.8bn compared with £14.7bn in previous quarter. The deficit with EU countries was £3.3bn. Total exports of goods was £18.7bn and total imports £25.3bn. Imports and exports of consumer goods both fell in the first quarter.

Bank Maintains Interest Rates At 0.5%

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee decided at their meeting on 7 May 2009 that the bank rate will stay at 0.5% on commercial bank reserves. The MPC also decided to increase the size of its asset purchase programme by £50 billion to £125 billion. The world economy remains in deep recession, global output has contracted and international trade has fallen. The increase in private saving, the restructuring of balance sheets by banks and weaker global demand will continue to hold back economic activity. Another factor acting in the other direction is the stimulus given by governments around the world to improve the availability of credit by easing in monetary and fiscal policies. It was decided that as the stimulus is expected to eventually lead to a recovery in economic growth and inflation to return to the 2% target, the interest rate should remain at 0.5% and also to continue with the programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves and increase its size to £125 billion.