LONDON: The number of UK companies who sell their goods and services abroad fell last year, dealing a fresh blow to the government’s drive to boost exports by the end of the decade.
David Cameron said in 2011 that he intends to increase the number of UK exporters by 100,000 by 2020. The government also aims to double the value of exports to £1tn a year.
However, in its Annual Business Survey, the Office for National Statistics found that the number of UK exporters fell to 221,300 last year from 228,900 in 2013, although it is still higher than 201,900 in 2011.
The new figures come months after the British Chambers of Commerce estimated that at the present rate of progress it will take until 2034 to double exports.
The UK has run a trade deficit in every year since 1997 and the trade balance is expected to remain in the red this year. Exporters are struggling under the weight of a strong pound, which has appreciated steeply against the dollar, and because of the recent weaknesses in foreign markets, particularly in emerging nations.
“The figures are disappointing, though not entirely surprising, as 2014 was a difficult year in the trading environment,” said David Kern, chief economist at the BCC.
“One of the problems is that not enough SMEs [small to medium enterprises] are in the international trading game. The big boys can help themselves, but for a small company it is a lot more difficult to export more, in particular out of Europe,” he added.
The ONS figures show that the proportion of UK businesses that export has fallen from 11.6 per cent in 2013 to 10.8 per cent last year. While more than 40 per cent of big companies are exporters, only one in 10 small businesses sell their goods and services abroad.
The ONS also found that the “professional, scientific and technical activities” sector was the largest in terms of exporters, with more than 60,000 businesses selling abroad. Manufacturing was only third, behind wholesale and retail trade, with a little more than 30,000 exporters.
A quarter of exporting businesses in the UK are based in London. The capital also experienced the largest increase in the number of companies trading internationally, accounting for both exporters and importers, which jumped from 59,000 to 73,600 between 2011 and 2014.
Sajid Javid, business secretary, has planned to shake up the UK Trade and Investment department to make it more effective in supporting SMEs.
“These figures are disappointing, and further evidence that we are right to increase our focus on supporting the UK to export,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
“We are committed to improving the UK’s export performance, establishing a cross-government export implementation task force led by the business secretary and just this week launching the Exporting is GREAT campaign, which aims to inspire and support 100,000 additional exporters by 2020.”
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