BCC News: BCC: International Trade in UK and EU

Office for National Statistics (ONS) has issued latest release of Statistical Bulletin on UK Trade: September 2022.

The key areas covered: imports, exports and deficit.

In Depth Analysis

Imports
In September, overall goods imports to the UK fell by 5% (£2.8bn) with EU imports down by 7.3% (£1.9bn) and non-EU imports down by 3% (£1bn), primarily down to lower gas imports from Norway and the fall in oil prices globally. Excluding inflation overall imports fell by 6.1% (£2.6bn) in September.

Among the largest falls in imports from the EU by sector was in chemicals (down by £0.7bn).

Fuel imports from outside the EU, principally Norway, fell the most in September – down by £1.3bn.

Exports
UK goods exports fell in September by 4.7% (£1.6bn). The drop in exports to the EU was higher than to the rest of the world – 5.1% (£0.9bn) compared with 4.2% (£0.7bn).

Excluding inflation, overall goods exports fell by 4.8% (£1.4bn) in September.

On exports to the EU the largest falls were in machinery and transport equipment (principally to Germany) and in fuel exports.

Falls in non-EU exports were led by drops in the same goods and commodities – mechanical and transport equipment, as well as oil exports.

Deficit
The overall trade deficit fell by £1.3bn to £23.7bn during September – fairly constant over the past 9 months.

In Q3, total UK goods imports rose by 2%, and UK goods exports rose by 3.2%. Imports of machinery and transport equipment from the EU fell by £1.7bn over the quarter and chemicals by £1.4bn over the same period.

Total services imports and exports both rose by 3.3% in the same period. Trade in pensions, travel, intellectual property and insurance services remained strong in Q3.

More detail on the ONS trade data can be found here.