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 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.

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.

Trade Deficit Increases To £2.4bn

The UK trade deficit grew to £2.4bn in May from £2.1bn in April 2013 and £2.3bn in March. The deficit on goods was £8.5bn offset by a surplus of £6.1bn in services. Trade volumes have recovered since the lower levels at the beginning of the year. Trade prices have risen. Total exports increased by £0.4bn or 1.5% to £25.6bn and total imports increased by £0.4bn or 1.3% to £34.1bn. The annual comparison shows that there was a total trade deficit of £2.1bn in May 2012.

UK Trade Deficit Down To £2.6bn

The UK trade deficit was estimated to have been £2.6bn in April according to the ONS statistical release on the UK's April trade figures. There was a £3.2bn deficit in March.

The trade deficit on goods was £8.2bn which was partly offset by a surplus of £5.6bn on services. Exports fell by 1.3% between March and April 2013. Imports fell by 2.7% over the same period. It was largely due to trading with the EU that the deficit was cut. Imports from the EU fell by about £1.3bn.

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 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.

Trade Deficit Down To £2.7bn

The UK trade deficit was reduced from £4.3bn to £2.7bn in August 2012 according to a statistical bulletin by the ONS. The EU trade deficit was £4.4bn and the non-EU trade deficit was £4bn. The total deficit on the balance of trade in goods was £8.4bn that was partly offset by a surplus of £5.7bn on services. Export of goods increased by £0.3bn to £24.9bn and imports of goods decreased by £1.3bn to £33.2bn in September 2012.

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.

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.

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%.

Better Picture For Trade In August

The UK deficit on trade in goods and services decreased in August from £5bn in July to £4.6bn. Trade in goods was in deficit by £8.2bn but trade in services was again in surplus by £3.6bn down from £3.7bn in July. Geographically, the £8.2bn deficit on trade in goods with the world was spread between the EU with a £3.5bn deficit and non-EU with a £4.7bn deficit.

Deficit In Trade In April Up £0.1bn

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.

Trade Deficit

The trade deficit in March was £3.7bn compared with £2.2bn in February. On a quarterly basis the trade deficit for the first quarter (Q1) was £9.7bn compared with £8.7bn for Q4 2009. The trade surplus in services was valued at £3.8bn the trade deficit in goods was £7.5bn in March 2010 compared with £4.1bn and £6.3bn respectively in February.

In terms of changes in commodity value in March oil exports increased by £198m and exports of intermediate goods by £133m, chemicals imports decreased by £314m in value. The value of imports of intermediate goods increased by £268m and cars by £211m. All categories reported an increase in the value of imports during March. The change in the value exports of oil for the quarter was an increase of £511m. The value of consumer goods exports increased £372m. Exports of cars decreased in value by £236m and chemicals by £206m.

Geographical analyses show that within the G7 exports to the US fell by £0.5bn and imports from Germany increased in value by £0.3bn. Imports from Norway fell by £0.2bn during March compared with February. There were no significant changes in exports or imports within the G7 during the quarter but imports from Switzerland increased by £1.1bn, from Norway by £0.6bn and China by £0.5bn.

The volume of exports fell by 1.8% but imports increased by 3.5% with imports of basic materials up 6.5% and exports up 9%. Imports of cars went up 14.9% but exports fell by 5.2% in March. Over the quarter imports of basic materials increased 12.5% but exports fell 0.5%, imports of semi-manufactured goods increased by 13.2% but exports fell by 1.2%. Exports of consumer goods increased by 7.9%.

There was an increase in the terms of trade in March as exports prices rose by 2.9% and import prices rose by 2.7%. Over the quarter the terms of trade increased because export prices rose by 2.7% and import prices rose by 2.4%.

Fall In Trade In Services Surplus

The January 2010 deficit in value on the balance of trade in goods and services was £3.8bn, in December it was £2.6bn. Trade in goods was £7.9bn in deficit compared with £7bn in December and trade in services had a balance of £4.2bn, down from £4.4bn in December 2009. When the volatile items are excluded the figure for the volume of exports was 6% lower and the volume of imports was 1.2% lower than December. Export prices were 0.6% lower than December but import prices rose by 0.6%.

At the commodity level, in January 2010 compared with December 2009, exports of consumer goods were up by £23m and imports down by £222m, exports of cars were down £146m and imports down by £215m. Exports of chemicals were down £369m and imports up by £239m, semi-manufactured goods other than chemicals imports were up £332m and exports down by £65m.

The trade in services surplus got smaller by £0.2bn in January 2010 to £4.2bn. In December the surplus was £4.4bn. Exports fell by £0.1bn while imports rose by £0.1bn to £8.9bn.

Geographically, the deficit in trade in goods with the EU narrowed to £3.2bn from £3.6bn. EU exports fell by £0.2bn to £11.1bn and imports by £0.7bn to £14.2bn. There was an increase in the export of intermediate goods of £18m and imports of intermediate goods fell by £70m. The export of capital goods fell by £54m and the imports of capital goods by £145m. Imports of chemicals increased during the month by £64m and exports fell by £102m and consumer goods exports fell by £46m while imports fell by £225m. The trade in goods deficit with non-EU countries grew by £1.4bn to £4.8bn. Exports to non-EU countries fell by 12.5% to £8.4bn but non-EU imports increased by 1.6% or £0.2bn to £13.2bn.

The US was the only country in the G7 group with whom the level of exports changed significantly between December and January. Exports to the US fell by £0.5bn. There were no significant changes in the level of exports with any of the G7 countries. Switzerland was the only other country with whom the were any significant changes where imports increased by £0.5bn.

Changes in key commodity volumes between December and January include exports of food, drink and tobacco down 9.2% and imports 4.7%, exports of basic materials decreased by 24.6% and imports by 1.1%, exports of cars decreased by 9.3% and imports by 15.5%. The increase in exports was in consumer goods (other than cars) where the increase was 1.1% together with a decrease in imports of 6.2%.

The terms of trade in January decreased because export prices fell by 0.6% and import prices increased by 0.6%. Excluding the volatile items (the oil price effect) export prices fell by 1.3% but import prices rose by 0.7%.

UK Trade Deficit Cut By £0.2bn.

The seasonally adjusted trade deficit in goods and services was cut by £0.2bn from £3.1bn in October to £2.9bn in November. The deficit on trade in goods was £6.8bn compared with £7bn and the surplus on services was unchanged at £3.9bn. The volume of exports excluding oil and erratics was 0.2% up but the volume of imports was down 0.9% in November. Export prices fell 0.4% and import prices fell by 0.6% on October.

In terms of value, total exports were unchanged at £20.2bn though total imports fell by £0.2bn to £27bn. Exports of cars fell by £26m while imports of cars increased by £96m, but exports of consumer goods other than cars increased by £131m and imports of consumer goods other than cars fell by £227m. Exports of chemicals increased by £96m and imports fell by £138m on November compared with October 2009.

In the three months ended November 2009 the trade deficit in goods increased by £1.6bn to £20.7bn compared with a deficit of £19.2bn in the previous three months to August. Total exports rose to £59.8bn from £55.7bn and total imports rose to £80.6bn. Exports of chemicals increased by £713m and imports by £1,485m. Intermediate goods exports increased by £612m and imports by £974m. Exports of cars increased by £609m and imports by £1,086m.

In terms of volume, in November 2009 compared with October 2009, exports increased by 0.2% and imports decreased by 0.9% compared with October. Food, drink and tobacco exports increased by 2.7% and imports fell by 0.9%, basic materials exports fell by 8.8% and imports by 6%. Semi-manufactured goods increased by 0.9% and imports fell by 1.9% of which chemicals exports went up by 3.3% and imports fell by 4.1%. There was no change in the volume of finished manufactured goods overall but within the classification the volume of exports of consumer goods went up by 9.6% and imports fell by 4.5%, intermediate goods went up by 1.1% and imports by 2.4%.

In the three months ending in November, the volume of exports of goods rose by 5.5% and the volume of imports rose by 6.9% compared with the previous three months to August. The volume of exports of basic materials increased by 10% and imports by 9.2%. Finished manufactured goods volumes totalled a 5.8% increase in exports and 7.1% increase in imports of which exports of cars increased by 16.2% and imports by 25.5%, intermediate goods export volumes increased by 5.7% and imports by 7.6% and capital goods export volumes increased by 6.6% and imports by 5.1%.

Export prices fell by 0.4% and import prices by 0.6% in November compared with October leading to an increase in the terms of trade. Export prices, excluding the oil price effect, fell by 0.8% and import prices by 1%. In the three months to November export prices rose by 2.7% and import prices by 2.3% on the previous quarter likewise leading to an increase in the terms of trade. Export prices, excluding the oil price effect, rose by 2.2% and import prices by 1.8%.

Trade in services remained unchanged in November with a surplus of £3.9bn. Exports rose by £0.2bn and imports by £0.2bn. Total exports were unchanged at £38.8bn although imports rose slightly by £0.1bn to £27.2bn.

Trade In Goods Is Down, Services Unchanged

The UK trade deficit in the value of goods and services grew from £3.1bn in September to £3.2bn in October. The difference was in value of the trade in goods where the deficit increased from £6.9bn in September to £7.1bn in October. The trade surplus in services was unchanged over the month at £3.9bn. Export and import prices both rose by 1.6%.

The volume of exports was up 3.8% and imports by 4.3% inOctober compared with September. There were big increases in the export by value of oil, cars, intermediate goods and semi-manufactured goods other than chemicals between October and September. Imports of chemicals, consumer goods and capital goods also increased significantly in terms of commodity value during the month. The value of exports of chemicals, cars, semi-manufactured goods and intermediate goods has also significantly increased as has the imports of cars, chemicals, intermediate goods and consumer goods over the year.

Trade in goods with EU countries showed a deficit of £3.6bn, up £0.4bn as exports rose by £0.4bn to £11.3bn and imports rose £0.8bn to £14.9bn. The deficit in trade with non-EU countries narrowed to £3.5bn from £3.8bn in September. Within the G7 countries, imports from the US went up £0.4bn and imports from Norway fell £0.2bn. There were no export movements over £0.2bn.

As the prices for both imports and exports were unchanged in October, the terms of trade remained the same as September. Over the quarter import prices increased by 1.6% and export prices by 2% giving an increase in the terms of trade. The balance on trade in oil was in deficit by £0.1bn from £0.5bn in September.

The surplus on trade in services as unchanged in October from September at £3.9bn. Exports rose to £12.9bn and imports rose to £9bn. Over the quarter the surplus widenend to £12bn from £11.4bn.