British trade deficit increases to 34.8 bln pounds in 2014

British deficit on trade in goods and services was estimated to have been 34.8 billion pounds (53 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, the largest deficit since 2010, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday.

Both exports and imports fell in 2014 compared to 2013, with exports falling more significantly.

The widening of the deficit is mainly attributed to the export of goods decreasing by 14.6 billion pounds from the previous year and imports decreasing by 7.3 billion pounds. This was the first annual fall in imports since 2009, the ONS noted.

Britain registered a 2.9 billion pounds trade deficit in December 2014, bigger than 1.8 billion pounds recorded a month earlier.

This reflects a deficit of 10.2 billion pounds on goods, partly offset by an estimated surplus of 7.3 billion pounds on services.

Between the third and fourth quarter of 2014, trade in goods and the deficit narrowed by 2.2 billion pounds to 29.4 billion pounds, of which exports increased by 2.0 billion pounds to 73.8 billion pounds.

Imports decreased by 0.2 billion pounds to 103.2 billion pounds. (1 pound = 1.53 U.S dollars) Endit