UK goods trade deficit narrows
THE goods trade deficit reduced in February to its smallest since June 2006 after exports recovered from a fall caused by the poor weather, according to official figures.
Britain’s goods trade gap with the rest of the world fell to £6.179bn in February – lower than the £7.35bn forecast by analysts.
The figure was also down on January’s 17-month high of £8bn.
Economist at Commerzbank Peter Dixon said: “We had a sharp rebound in exports, which I think was just normalising the weather-induced problems in January.”
However, he warned that the positive data may not continue.
He added: “They are good numbers on the face of it, but I don’t think we can realistically expect the trade numbers to remain this buoyant in the next month or two.”