THE UK last year racked up its worst global trade deficit since 2010, as exports tumbled, official figures have shown.

The figures, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, underline the unbalanced nature of the economic recovery and the extent to which Chancellor George Osborne's March 2011 vision of "a Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers" has failed to turn into reality.

According to the ONS, the UK's deficit on trade in goods and services with the rest of the world widened to £34.8 billion in 2014 from £33.7bn in 2013. This was the worst outturn since 2010, when the trade deficit came in at £37.1bn.

The ONS noted that the UK's goods exports had fallen by £14.6bn last year. Imports of goods declined by £7.3bn.

The figures also showed that the UK's global goods trade deficit widened unexpectedly in December as a leap in imports more than offset a slight rise in exports.

The global goods trade deficit widened from an upwardly-revised £9.28bn in November to £10.2bn in December. Economists had forecast a December goods trade deficit of £9.1bn.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy IHS Global Insight, noted the trade deficit had been pushed up in December by a jump in oil imports from Norway.

Taking goods and services together, the UK's global trade deficit widened from £1.84bn to £2.9bn.

Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at consultancy Capital Economics, said: "Whilst December's trade data are not as bad as they first appear, the strong pound and weak demand from the eurozone are likely to prevent a material improvement in the external position in 2015."