The UK's trade in goods deficit widened slightly during June as demand for British goods in overseas markets weakened, official figures showed yesterday, providing more gloomy news for Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.

The UK's trade in goods deficit widened slightly during June as demand for British goods in overseas markets weakened, official figures showed yesterday, providing more gloomy news for Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.

The shortfall in trade with non-European Union countries increased to the highest level since comparable records began in 1998.

The Office for National Statistics said the UK's trade in goods balance with the rest of the world was in deficit of £7.7bn, compared to £7.4bn in May - revised down from the previous estimate of £7.5bn.

The figure was larger than estimates from City analysts. They had forecast a deficit of £7.5bn. City economists said the rise in imports was responsible for the deficit. They increased by £1.2bn to £29.7bn, outstripping a £900m rise in exports.

Of particular note was the balance of trade in goods deficit with non-EU countries, which widened to a record £4.7bn compared to £4bn in May.

However, the UK's trade in goods deficit with the 25 members of the EU narrowed to £2.9bn from £3.4bn in June, the smallest reading since December 2006. This was due to a higher rise in exports of chemicals to its European trading partners.

Meanwhile, the UK's trade surplus in services - the locomotive of the British economy - was steady at £3.3bn, unchanged from June.

This took the total trade in goods and services to a deficit of £4.4bn from a £4.1bn gap the previous month.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at consultants Global Insight, said the deficit will worry the Bank of England.

"The headline June trade data were modestly disappointing, with the total deficit rising to a four-month high of £4.4bn from £4.1bn in May. However, this was partly due to the oil deficit rising to a 2008-high of £495m in June.

"The deficit in traded goods excluding oil rose only modestly to £7.2bn from £7.1bn as in May and was exactly in line with the 2008 average, as exports rose by a healthy 2.1% month-on-month, thereby suggesting that the weaker pound is providing significant support to UK exporters.

"However, this was countered in June by a 2.0% month-on-month rise in imports of traded goods excluding oil."

He added:"The Bank of England will be perturbed to see that import prices again rose sharply in June as they were pushed up by the markedly weaker pound in tandem with high oil, commodity and food prices."