The Office for National Statistics has today published the figures on UK trade in January 2011, identifying an increase in both exports and imports.
Excluding oil and erratic items, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports was 6.1 per cent higher and the volume of imports was 1.9 per cent higher in January, compared with December.
The UK’s seasonally adjusted deficit on trade in goods and services was £3.0 billion in January, compared with the deficit of £5.5 billion in December, when imports of aircraft were very high.
Commenting on the release, EEF chief economist Lee Hopley said: “Since world trade turned a corner we’ve seen seven consecutive quarters of growth in manufactured exports. This trend continued in January, with the official figures confirming that demand for UK goods exports remained firm across a wide range of overseas markets. But strong growth in goods exports alone won’t deliver the much needed rebalancing of our economy. For net trade to boost growth in 2011 growth in services exports has to catch up with goods and we need to bolster parts of the UK supply chain in order to reduce dependence on imports.”
The seasonally adjusted deficit on trade in goods was £7.1bn in January, compared with the deficit of £9.7bn in December, while the surplus on trade in services was estimated at £4.1 billion in the first month of the year, down £0.1bn compared to December 2010.
