UK Trade - April 2014

9th June 2014

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 £2.5 billion in April 2014, compared with £1.1 billion in March 2014.

There was a deficit of £9.6 billion on goods, partly offset by an estimated surplus of £7.1 billion on services.

Trade in Goods data in this release are supplied by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC have informed ONS that they have identified omissions in their most recent data delivery, resulting in exports of oil being underestimated by about £700 million in April 2014. Unfortunately this was identified too late to incorporate into this publication, although footnotes have been added to relevant data tables to draw attention to the impact of the data omissions. While the omissions will be addressed in the next UK Trade release, to be published on 10 July 2014, it is important to remind users that there could be other data revisions at that time that could impact on the overall picture.

If this £700 million is taken into account the goods and services deficit stands at £1.8 billion in April 2014 (instead of £2.5 billion) and the goods deficit was £8.9 billion (instead of £9.6 billion).

In April 2014 the trade in goods deficit excluding oil was £8.4 billion compared with £7.7 billion in March 2014. In April 2014, exports of goods excluding oil decreased 1.9% to £21.2 billion from £21.6 billion in March 2014, reflecting falls in chemical manufactures and material manufactures.