January trade gap widest since August 2008
Reuters has this.
Britain’s goods trade deficit with the rest of the world unexpectedly widened to its biggest since August 2008 in January, after the sharpest drop in exports in over three years, official data showed on Tuesday.
The Office for National Statistics said that Britain’s goods trade gap widened to 7.987 billion pounds from a downwardly revised 7.010 billion in December, and well above the 7 billion pounds forecast by economists.
The goods trade gap with non-EU countries also widened unexpectedly to 4.834 billion pounds from 3.428 billion, the biggest deficit since January 2009.
The deterioration in the global trade balance was a result of a 6.9 percent fall in exports, the biggest fall since July 2006. Imports were down just 1.6 percent.
January was an unusually icy month in Britain, which may have disrupted the transport of goods for export to ports, though the ONS said that Tuesday’s data in itself did not provide firm evidence of that.
Exports to non-EU countries suffered their sharpest fall since January 2009, dropping by 12.5 percent on the month, while imports rose by 1.6 percent.
The figures are likely to further raise policymakers’ concern that the sharp fall in sterling over the past two years has not led to the expected boost in exports — a point reiterated by Bank of England policymaker Kate Barker on Monday.
The ONS said there was a broadbased fall in exports.
January trade gap widest since August 2008 | Reuters.
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