UK trade deficit narrowed in December, but on weaker imports

Date: Thursday 09 Feb 2012

The UK’s deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods and services was £1.1bn in December compared with the deficit of £2.8bn seen in November, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That is the smallest deficit since April 2003, when the deficit in trade in goods and services was £0.9 bn. However, at first glance the main reason for that apparent improvement seems to be the large drop seen in imports of goods.

The deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods was £7.1bn in December (Consensus: -£8.6bn), compared with the deficit of £8.9bn in November. Exports of goods increased by £0.2bn (0.9%) from £25.3bn in November to £25.6bn in December, and imports of goods decreased by £1.6bn (4.6%) from November's £34.3bn to £32.7bn in December. Excluding oil and erratic items, imports saw a slightly more measured 4.1% month-on-month decline.

The surplus on seasonally adjusted trade in services was estimated at £6.0bn in December compared with the surplus of £6.1bn in November. Exports of services fell by less than £0.1bn (0.1%) to £15.9bn but imports of services rose by less than £0.1bn (0.6%) to reach £9.9bn.

The deficit in trade (goods) with non-EU countries improved to -£3.75bn (Consensus: -£4.95bn) from £5.04bn the month before.

AB

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