Statistics: UK Trade, May 2014

Key Points

• UK Trade shows the extent of import and export activity and is a key contributor to the overall economic growth in the UK.
• Seasonally adjusted, the UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services was estimated to have been £2.4 billion in May 2014, compared with £2.1 billion in April 2014.
• There was a deficit of £9.2 billion on goods, partly offset by an estimated surplus of £6.8 billion on services.
• In May 2014 exports of goods increased by £0.1 billion to £24.1 billion and imports of goods increased by £0.5 billion to £33.3 billion resulting in a widening of the goods deficit by £0.4 billion. The increase in imports of goods was attributed to aircraft.
• In May 2014 exports of goods to the EU decreased by 0.2% to £12.2 billion and imports of goods increased by 1.6% to 17.4 billion. For the same period, exports of goods to countries outside the EU increased by 1.5% to £11.9 billion and imports of goods increased by 1.7% to £15.9 billion, reflecting an increase in imports of semi-manufactured goods.
• In the three months ending May 2014, exports of goods increased by 0.1% to £72.6 billion and imports of goods increased by 0.5% to £98.9 billion. In the three months ending May 2014, the export of goods excluding oil and erratics increased by 0.9% to £60.6 billion; reflecting a £0.4 billion increase in exports of cars. Imports of goods excluding oil and erratics increased by 0.2% to £83.8 billion for the same period.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.1.0.