Details of the October 2015 UK trade balance data report 10 December 2015

  • Prior -9.351bn. Revised to -8.802bn
  • Non-EU trade balance -3.729bn vs -2.500bn exp. Prior -2.076bn. Revised to -1.717bn
  • Trade balance -4.140bn vs -1.800bn exp. Prior -1.353bn. Revised to -1.073bn
  • Exports -2.7% vs +0.4% prior. Revised to +1.7%
  • Imports +8.2% vs -2.6% prior. Revised to -3.5%

Not what Chancellor George Osborne wants to see. A missive jump in imports twinned with a big drop in exports

The imports were mainly driven by machinery and transport equipment. That isn't such a bad thing if firms are using the high pound to buy machinery. That's a signal for investment and future output

Imports from Non-EU was +7.8% while from the EU they rose 6.4%

That's all a minor silver lining and the main headline is that the deficit is much worse than it was

UK trade balance