THE UK's global goods trade deficit was worse than expected in March, official figures have shown, highlighting the unbalanced nature of an economic recovery that has slowed sharply in recent months.
Seasonally-adjusted figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the UK's deficit on trade in goods with the rest of the world narrowed from an upwardly-revised £10.8 billion in February to £10.1bn in March. However, the March figure was significantly worse than the £9.8bn deficit forecast by the City.
Exports of goods from the UK to the rest of the world edged up from £23.4bn in February to £23.7bn in March. The country's imports of goods fell from £34.2bn in February to £33.9bn in March.
The UK's surplus on trade in services with the rest of the world fell from £7.48bn in February to £7.3bn in March.
Taking goods and services together, the UK's overall global trade deficit narrowed from £3.32bn in February to £2.82bn in March.
Over the first quarter as a whole, the UK's deficit on trade in goods and services with the rest of the world widened to £7.48bn, from £5.97bn in the final three months of last year. The UK's exports of goods to the European Union fell by 8.3 per cent or £3bn quarter-on-quarter in the opening three months of this year, to £33.6bn.
The trade figures are the latest in a run of disappointing economic figures.
Data published last week by the ONS showed that the UK economy grew by only 0.3 per cent in the opening three months of this year. This was only half of the already below-trend rate of expansion of 0.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2014.
Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, said: "The March trade data are relatively disappointing and it looks like negative net trade was a factor in UK GDP (gross domestic product) growth slowing to 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter."
He added: "The relatively disappointing export data will put pressure on the new Conservative government to provide as much support as possible to exporters."
Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: "Although all eyes...have been on the General Election result, March's trade figures have also been released and help to explain some of the slowdown in GDP growth in the first quarter."
She added: "Looking ahead, survey measures of export orders do not paint a particularly encouraging picture of the near-term outlook for exports. Indeed, the weak eurozone and strength of the pound are likely to hamper the UK's export outlook for the foreseeable future."
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