UK trade: March 2017
Total value of UK imports and exports of goods together with indices of volume and price, including an early monthly estimate of the value of trade in services.
Table of contents
- Main points
- Things you need to know about this release
- The deficit on trade in goods and services widened to £10.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2017
- How did UK trade in March contribute to the widening of the trade deficit in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2017?
- Who are the UK’s top trading partners for goods?
- Depreciation of sterling continues to apply upward pressure on prices
- What are the revisions to trade values since last month?
- Links to related statistics
- Quality and methodology
Main points
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Between Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2016 and Quarter 1 (Jan to March) 2017, the total trade deficit (goods and services) widened by £5.7 billion to £10.5 billion; this followed a sharp narrowing in Quarter 4 2016.
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The UK’s total trade deficit (goods and services) widened by £2.3 billion between February and March 2017 to £4.9 billion, contributing nearly half of the quarterly deficit.
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At the commodity level, the main causes of the widening of the deficit in Quarter 1 2017 were increased imports of machinery and transport equipment (mainly mechanical machinery and cars), oil and chemicals; these commodities also contributed the most to the increase in imports in March 2017.
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Total imports increased by £2.9 billion between February and March 2017, with an increase in imports of goods from both EU and non-EU countries.
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Since the last UK trade release, the trade balance for February 2017 has revised up by £1.0 billion; this is mainly due to a downward revision to the imports of goods.
Read more of this report online by clicking HERE
Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.1.0.
