UK January trade balance report 10 March

  • GBP -10.915bln prev revised down from -10.89bln
  • non-EU trade balance GBP -2.447 bln vs -2.425bln exp vs -2.527bln prev revised down from -2.114 bln
  • trade balance GBP - 1.967bln vs -3.1bln exp vs 2.026bln prev revised up from -3.33bln prev

GBPUSD suitably unfazed at 1.2166 by the mixed bag of data. EURGBP 0.8720

Say the ONS:

  • The trade deficit in goods and services in January 2017 was £2.0 billion, unchanged from December 2016.

  • Between the 3 months to October 2016 and the 3 months to January 2017, the total trade deficit (goods and services) narrowed by £4.7 billion to £6.4 billion.

  • At the commodity level, the main contributors to the narrowing of the total trade deficit in the 3 months to January 2017, were increased exports of non-monetary gold, oil, machinery and transport equipment (mainly electrical machinery, aircraft and cars) and chemicals.

  • The trade in goods deficit for the 3 months to January 2017 narrowed by £4.1 billion to £33.1 billion compared with the 3 months to October 2016.

  • In 2016, excluding oil and other erratic commodities, the underlying trend in trade in goods is a widening of the deficit; with both exports and imports of goods increasing each quarter of the year.

Full report from the ONS here