UK trade deficit narrows in December

The UK’s trade gap with the rest of the world widened in the fourth quarter, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Tuesday.

The deficit in the goods and services trade balance increased by £1.8bn over the three months to December to reach £10.4bn, pushing the deficit for all of 2015 to £34.7bn.

Last year's tally was £300m larger than in 2014.

ONS attributed the widening to a slight drop in exports, which were down 0.2% between 2014 and 2015.

In 2015, total exports fell by £1bn to £512.4bn and there was a £8.1bn fall in exports of goods, partially offset by a £7.1bn rise in exports of services.

In December, the total trade deficit narrowed to £2.71bn from £4.03bn, compared with economists’ expectations for £3bn. However, the November trade deficit was revised up to £4bn from £3.1bn.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “December’s trade figures indicate that the economic recovery remains unbalanced and imply that net trade has continued to drag on GDP growth.”