Balance of payments, UK: April to June 2026

• The underlying UK current account deficit, excluding precious metals, narrowed to £11.3 billion, or 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2026; this is a change of £3.0 billion compared with the deficit of £14.3 billion in the previous quarter.
• The UK current account deficit, including trade in precious metals, narrowed by £1.2 billion to £19.9 billion, or 2.5% of GDP, in Quarter 2 2026.
• The total trade deficit, excluding precious metals, narrowed to £4.2 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, in Quarter 2 2026, compared with £9.4 billion in the previous quarter; the goods deficit narrowed to £55.5 billion, and the services surplus widened to £51.3 billion.
• The primary income account deficit widened to £3.8 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, in Quarter 2 2026, as debits increased by more than credits.
• The UK recorded a net financial inflow of £29.7 billion in Quarter 2 2026.
• The preliminary estimate of the UK's net international investment liability position, on 30 June 2026, widened slightly to £196.8 billion, from a revised £194.1 billion as of 31 March 2026.
• Data for all quarters have been fully open to revisions, with revisions to "current account, excluding precious metals" data ranging from negative 0.5% to positive 1.7% of GDP.

The UK's current account balance is a measure of the country's balance of payments (BoP) with the rest of the world in trade, primary income, and secondary income.

The underlying UK current account deficit, excluding precious metals, narrowed to £11.3 billion, or 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2026. This is a change of £3.0 billion compared with the deficit of £14.3 billion (1.8% of GDP) in the previous quarter.

Table 1 summarises the current account data for Quarter 2 2026. The narrowing of the current account deficit in the latest quarter was largely caused by a £5.2 billion narrowing of the total trade deficit. This was partially offset by a £2.6 billion widening of the primary income deficit.

Trade

The total trade deficit for goods and services narrowed to £4.2 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, in Quarter 2 2026, from £9.4 billion in the previous quarter.

The trade in goods deficit narrowed by £2.7 billion to £55.5 billion, or 7.0% of GDP, and the trade in services surplus increased by £2.5 billion to £51.3 billion, or 6.5% of GDP.

Figure 3: Both exports and imports of goods increased in Quarter 2 2026

Changes in exports and imports of goods, excluding unspecified goods, £ billion, Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2026 compared with Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2026.

Notes:

1. Unspecified goods are not included in this chart or commentary because the commodities contain elements of precious metals, which are excluded from our headline estimates.

The trade in goods deficit narrowed in Quarter 2 2026 as exports of goods increased more than imports. Total goods exports increased by £9.5 billion, from £97.5 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2026 to £107.1 billion in Quarter 2 2026. The largest increases in exports of goods were recorded in:

• oil, including merchanting, up by £6.0 billion

• finished manufactured goods, up by £1.7 billion

• semi-manufactured goods, up by £1.3 billion

Imports of goods increased by £6.8 billion, from £155.7 billion in Quarter 1 2026 to £162.5 billion in Quarter 2 2026. The largest increases in imports of goods were recorded in:

• oil, up by £5.1 billion

• other fuels, up by £0.8 billion

• semi-manufactured goods, up by £0.7 billion

The trade in services surplus increased by £2.5 billion in Quarter 2 2026, as exports of services increased by more than imports.

Exports of services increased by £3.0 billion in Quarter 2 2026 to £137.3 billion. The largest increases in exports were recorded in:

• other business services, up by £2.4 billion

• travel, up by £0.6 billion

• intellectual property, up by £0.5 billion

Imports of services increased by £0.5 billion in Quarter 2 2026 to £86.0 billion. The largest increases in imports were recorded in transport services, which increased by £0.7 billion, and intellectual property services, which increased by £0.3 billion. These increases were offset by decreases in imports of other business services and telecommunication, computer and information services, which both decreased by £0.4 billion in Quarter 2 2026.

Primary income

The primary income account records income that the UK receives and pays on financial and other assets, along with the compensation of employees.

The primary income account deficit widened by £2.6 billion in Quarter 2 2026 to £3.8 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, as debits increased more than credits.

UK payments to foreign investors (debits) increased by £5.4 billion from the previous quarter to £112.9 billion in Quarter 2 2026. This increase reflected higher payments on direct investment (£2.8 billion), other investment (£1.5 billion) and portfolio investment (£1.1 billion). Although earnings on direct investment in the UK increased this quarter, provisional estimates for quarters since the end of 2024 are lower than for those in the two previous years; this contributes to a narrower current account deficit in 2026.

UK receipts (credits) increased by £2.8 billion from the previous quarter, to £109.0 billion. Earnings on direct investment abroad increased by £3.3 billion, offset slightly by a decrease in payments on portfolio investment (£0.3 billion) and other investment (£0.2 billion).

Secondary income

The secondary income account shows current transfers between UK residents and non-residents.

The secondary income deficit narrowed slightly from £3.7 billion in Quarter 1 2026 to £3.3 billion in Quarter 2 2026, equivalent to 0.4% of GDP.

A current account deficit, which the UK has experienced each year since 1984, places the UK as a net borrower with the rest of the world, indicating that overall expenditure in the UK exceeds national income. The UK must attract net financial inflows to finance its current (and capital) account deficit. This can be achieved through either disposing of overseas assets to overseas investors or accruing liabilities with the rest of the world.

The financial account recorded a net inflow (more money flowing into the UK) of £29.7 billion in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2026 after recording a net inflow of £14.2 billion in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2026.

Net acquisition of UK assets (investment abroad) represented a financial outflow of £17.8 billion in Quarter 2 2026. Direct investment recorded an outflow of £13.4 billion, as UK investors reinvested earnings to the value of £13.8 billion.

Portfolio investment abroad recorded an outflow of £99.6 billion in Quarter 2 2026. UK investors invested £61.4 billion in foreign equity securities, as UK monetary financial institutions invested £68.5 billion in equity securities abroad. UK investors also invested £38.3 billion in foreign debt securities, with monetary financial institutions investing £46.4 billion in long-term debt securities. Other investment abroad recorded an inflow of £72.4 billion in Quarter 2 2026.

Net incurrence of UK liabilities (investment in the UK) generated an inflow of £47.6 billion in Quarter 2 2026. Direct investment recorded an inflow of £17.7 billion, reflecting equity capital investment of £21.2 billion, partly offset by disinvestment in reinvested earnings (£2.6 billion) and debt instruments (£1.0 billion).

Portfolio investment in the UK recorded an inflow of £38.7 billion, as foreign investors invested in UK debt securities to the value of £36.3 billion and equity and investment fund shares to the value of £2.4 billion. Other investment in the UK switched from an inflow of £361.7 billion in Quarter 1 2026 to an outflow of £8.8 billion in Quarter 2 2026.

More details are available in our Quarterly economic commentary article.

The international investment position (IIP) represents the UK’s balance sheet with the rest of the world. IIP measures the difference between the net stock of assets and liabilities at a point in time, which we report as the last day of each quarter.

The preliminary estimate of the UK’s net international investment liability position was £196.8 billion at the end of Quarter 2 (30 June) 2026, compared with £194.1 billion at the end of Quarter 1 (31 March) 2026.

The UK asset position on 30 June 2026 was valued at £15,265.3 billion. The UK liability position with the rest of the world was valued at £15,462.1 billion.

In line with our National Accounts Revisions Policy, the data accompanying this bulletin are open to revision. Revisions to "current account, excluding precious metals" data range from negative 0.5% to positive 1.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Revisions largely resulted from updated source data as part of the regular annual national accounts process. This includes:

• data from the 2024 annual International Trade in Services (ITIS) Survey being incorporated for the first time

• ITIS estimates being benchmarked to 2024 instead of 2023

• benchmarked foreign direct investment (FDI) data for 2023

• updated FDI survey data for Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2026

Additionally, there have been further improvements to the way we measure global production arrangements (globalisation), as explained in our previous Blue Book and Pink Book 2025: UK trade impact estimates article. New globalisation data for a number of industries have been included from Quarter 1 2024, mainly affecting semi-manufactured goods, specifically chemicals, which have resulted in higher estimates of goods exports, and lower estimates of goods imports, in this commodity group.

Methods improvements have been applied to pre-2024 trade in goods estimates to remove double counting of some precious metals that were previously recorded under semi-manufactured goods. These improvements have previously been applied to 2024 onwards.

Separately, precious metals formerly part of semi-manufactured goods have been moved to unspecified goods. Although there is no impact on total trade in goods estimates from this reallocation, there is some revision to these two commodity groups. More details are available in the Changes affecting UK trade statistics subsection of Section 8: Data sources and quality.

Introduction of new processing system for geographical data

As part of our commitment to legacy system reductions, the processing system used to produce the geographical balance of payments data in Table C, has been re-platformed to a new system. This approach has delivered a more sustainable production of the geographical balance of payments data by ensuring:

• improved efficiency

• increased reliability

• increased flexibility to support future changes

There have been improvements to the processing system. Users may notice some revisions to the geographical level data series back to 1999; however, the complete time series remains consistent. These improvements include:

• implementing some methods to improve quality, with methods now aligned to standard National Accounts practices

• increased automation with a reduction in manual processing tasks

• a seasonal adjustment review

• incorporating updated source data, which is a normal process in the annual national accounts update process

The resulting revisions affect only the geographical breakdown of the data and do not affect the published balance of payments current account aggregates.

Data sources

Balance of payments statistics are compiled from a variety of sources and produced using the national accounts sector and financial accounts (SFA) framework. Some of the main sources used include:

• overseas trade statistics (HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC))
• International Trade in Services Survey (ITIS) from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
• International Passenger Survey (ONS); this was suspended between March 2020 and January 2021 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and is currently undergoing transformation
• Foreign Direct Investment Survey (ONS and Bank of England (BoE))
• various financial inquiries (ONS and BoE)
• Ownership of UK Quoted Shares Survey (ONS)

Trade is measured through both exports and imports of goods and services. Data are supplied by over 30 sources, including several administrative sources, with HMRC being the largest for trade in goods. The ITIS, conducted by the ONS, is the largest single data source for trade in services.

The main source of information for UK foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics is our FDI Survey. Separate surveys are used to collect data on inward and outward FDI. This is combined with data from the BoE on the banking sector.

The statistics in this bulletin are compiled using the asset and liability measurement principle, which uses residency as the main distinction between outward and inward investments.

Changes affecting UK trade statistics

Data collection changes

Since the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, the arrangements for how the UK trades with the EU have changed. HMRC implemented some data collection changes following Brexit, which affected statistics on UK trade in goods with the EU. We have made adjustments to our estimates of goods imports from the EU in 2021 and 2022 to account for these changes. However, a structural break remains in the full time series for goods imports from and exports to the EU from January 2021.

We therefore advise caution when interpreting and drawing conclusions from these statistics. Our Impact of trade in goods data collection changes on UK trade statistics: summary of adjustments and the structural break from 2021 article provides more detail.

Allocation of precious metals

Our headline trade statistics contain the UK's exports and imports of non-monetary gold, in line with international standards. More information is available in our National Accounts article: A brief explanation of non-monetary gold in national accounts.

We have implemented improvements to the way we record trade in precious metals from 2024 onwards, as part of our methods improvements for Blue Book and Pink Book 2025. We have removed the double counting of some precious metals bars and included previously under-recorded non-monetary gold that is not in bar form. As part of methods improvements for Blue Book and Pink Book 2026, we have also implemented these changes prior to 2024.

As a result of improvements to the allocation of precious metals in Blue Book and Pink Book 2026, we have reallocated silver, platinum and palladium bullion from the "semi-manufactured goods" commodity group to the "unspecified goods" commodity group.

Precious metals include non-monetary gold, silver bullion, platinum bullion, and palladium bullion. Non-monetary gold forms the majority of the commodity group "unspecified goods" and is the technical term for gold bullion not owned by central banks.

International trade in services estimates

From September 2025 until early 2027, International Trade in Services Survey (ITIS) data, which account for approximately 50% of total trade in services, are being processed once per quarter. During this period, the data are based on a survey response rate of approximately 60% to 70%. This enables more focus on improving processing systems and ensuring methods and quality in the future.

The ITIS data that inform trade in services estimates have been updated in this publication to incorporate the 2024 annual survey.

The International Passenger Survey (IPS), which is the source of travel services estimates, accounting for approximately 8% of total trade, is being transformed under our travel and tourism project. The travel services estimates have been forecast since Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2024 and will be forecast during travel and tourism transformation.

Financial sector statistics

Our Financial Services Survey (FSS) transformation will improve the quality of our financial sector statistics. During the period of transformation, starting from Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2024, financial services statistics in this bulletin are based on forecasts.

Quality and methodology

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Balance of payments quality and methodology information (QMI).

We will continue to produce our UK balance of payments statistics in line with the UK Statistics Authority's Code of Practice for Statistics, and in accordance with internationally agreed statistical guidance and standards. This is based on the International Monetary Fund's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual: Sixth Edition (BPM6) (PDF, 3.0MB), until those standards are updated.

Statistical designation

The Office for Statistics Regulation independently reviewed these accredited official statistics in December 2011. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Consultation on Office for National Statistics release times

We are reviewing the release times for our market sensitive economic statistics, such as UK trade. This review will consider whether the current arrangements continue to best serve the public good, support user needs and align with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We are running a consultation to gather evidence on the impact of different release times. The consultation asks how you use market sensitive economic statistics, your views on potential release time options, and any other considerations we should consider. Please note that this consultation will be closing on Friday 30 October 2026.