LONDON: The Britain’s trade in goods deficit has widened sharply in December on a rush in oil imports, making the trade gap for last year as a whole the biggest since 2010.
There were signs of a shift in the trade balance in the final quarter, when the goods deficit narrowed by the largest amount in three years as export volumes rose at their fastest since the second quarter of 2013.
In the fourth quarter, the trade in goods shrank by 2.2 billion pounds to 29.4 billion, meaning trade is likely to make an improved contribution to gross domestic product in the same period, Office for National Statistics said.
The Conservative led government’s hopes of exports playing a greater role in the economy have been frustrated by persistent weakness in the euro zone Britain’s largest export market. That seems unlikely to change before a national election on May 7.
But there are signs that exporters are being helped by the fall in the value of the pound in the second half of last year. Export volumes jumped 2.4 per cent in December, the.
With sterling around 15 per cent higher on a trade weighted basis than its 2009 low, and demand in the euro zone still markedly weak, any further improvement in the trade deficit is likely to be fairly sluggish.
Office for National Statistics said the goods deficit grew to 10.154 billion pounds ($15.6 billion) from 9.283 billion pounds in November.
