UK Trade Deficit Grows

The UK trade deficit widened to the most in three months in February, due to declining exports, particularly exports of cars and heavy machinery to the US, China and Russia. Overall, exports fell 3.4 percent, while imports remained unchanged.

The Office for National Statistics said today that in February the trade deficit gap increased to 8.77 billion pounds from 7.88 billion pounds in January.

UK's trade deficit with countries outside the euro zone increased to 5.02 billion pounds in February from 3.72 billion pounds in January. Exports to those countries fell by 8.8 percent. At the same time, the gap with EU nations narrowed to 3.76 billion pounds from 4.17 billion pounds.

Some economists say that UK exports may remain limited in the near term due to the slowdowm of global economic growth, while moderate domestic demand is likely to keep UK imports at the same level over the coming months.

Source: Bloomberg