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11/11/2003
Britain slips to worst-ever EU trade deficit
In September, Britain slipped into its worst-ever trade deficit against the European Union.
According to figures released today by the Office of National Statistics the gap with EU countries which take around half of all Britain's exports, jumped from 1.7 billion in August to 2.2 billion in September.
The figure revealed that a decline in exports to the weakest economies, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, contributed substantially to the deficit.
Britain's total global goods deficit climbed £1.4 billion in one month, hitting £4.8 billion in September, up from £3.4 billion in August. The overall figure is far short of the £5.1 billion record of November 2002.
Even omitting oil revenues, which have been hit by temporary maintenance shutdowns, the trade gap has shown a substantial jump above analysts' forecasts that had widely predicted that a trade deficit figure would be around £3.5 billion.
The widening of the gap was attributed to a failure in the recovery of exports despite a more buoyant market in the US and Japan, whose economies are showing signs of recovery, and high domestic consumer demand leading to sustained imports.
It is now predicted that there will need to be a substantial rise in export performance to counter the continuing consumer demand, though the latest retail figures for the latter indicate a sharp falloff in pre-Christmas demand.
Following the publication of the trade figures the pound weakened against both the dollar and the euro.
(SP)
According to figures released today by the Office of National Statistics the gap with EU countries which take around half of all Britain's exports, jumped from 1.7 billion in August to 2.2 billion in September.
The figure revealed that a decline in exports to the weakest economies, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, contributed substantially to the deficit.
Britain's total global goods deficit climbed £1.4 billion in one month, hitting £4.8 billion in September, up from £3.4 billion in August. The overall figure is far short of the £5.1 billion record of November 2002.
Even omitting oil revenues, which have been hit by temporary maintenance shutdowns, the trade gap has shown a substantial jump above analysts' forecasts that had widely predicted that a trade deficit figure would be around £3.5 billion.
The widening of the gap was attributed to a failure in the recovery of exports despite a more buoyant market in the US and Japan, whose economies are showing signs of recovery, and high domestic consumer demand leading to sustained imports.
It is now predicted that there will need to be a substantial rise in export performance to counter the continuing consumer demand, though the latest retail figures for the latter indicate a sharp falloff in pre-Christmas demand.
Following the publication of the trade figures the pound weakened against both the dollar and the euro.
(SP)
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