UK trade balance data report for February
- -£12.157bln prev revised down from -£10.289bln
- trade balance non-EU -£3.357bln vs -£2.5 bln exp vs -£4.363bln prev revised down from -£2.199bln
- trade balance -£4.840bln vs -3.4bln exp vs -£5.234bln prev revised down from -£3.459bln
Ouch. Not good readings and on top of softer ind prod data we've seen GBPUSD knocked back a little but demand into 1.4100 holding still.
Update: 08.45 GMT Second wave selling now sends cable to 1.40 96 and EURGBP up to 0.8078.
Seems like I've worked my magic again!
The trade balance measures the difference in value between imported and exported goods and services over the reported period. A positive number indicates that more goods and services were exported than imported.
UK buying in a lot more from the EU and while that might suggest increased consumer demand the lack of business going the other way, anywhere, doesn't augur well.
Full report from the ONS here
UK economy still heavily dependent on services as this chart shows
