09/09/2005

UK trade deficit unexpectedly widens

The UK’s deficit on trade in goods and services is provisionally estimated to have widened in July to £3.4 billion from a deficit of £2.2 billion in June according to a report produced by the Office of National Statistics.

The surplus on trade and service was £1.6 billion in July, which was £0.3 billion less compared to June.

Following a change in pattern of trading associated with Missing Trader Intra-Community (MITC) fraud, interpretation of the breakdown between EU and non-EU trade is more difficult. However, the import adjustment is applied only to EU imports as the goods return to the UK via the EU.

The deficit on trade in goods with the enlarged EU in July was £2.6 billion, which was lower than the deficit of £2.8 billion in June.

The overall deficit, including services, widened to £3.4 billion in July compared to £2.2 billion in June.

The Office of National Statistics concluded that the UK trade is fairly flat. However analysts said the data had not changed much overall, but were worried as there seemed to be some distortions to the figures from tax fraud.

(CD/SP)

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