Release: UK Trade, December 2011

The UK’s deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods and services was £1.1 billion in December compared with the deficit of £2.8 billion in November.

This is the smallest deficit since April 2003, when the deficit in trade in goods and services was £0.9 billion.

The deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods was £7.1 billion in December, compared with the deficit of £8.9 billion in November.

The surplus on seasonally adjusted trade in services was estimated at £6.0 billion in December compared with the surplus of £6.1 billion in November.

Excluding oil and erratic items, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports was 0.4 per cent lower, and the volume of imports was 3.6 per cent lower in December, compared with November.

Export prices of goods fell by 0.9 per cent and import prices of goods fell by 1.3 per cent, compared with November.