The trade figures for January 2023, have been released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Available HERE, the trade bulletin notes that the total trade in goods and services deficit widened by £3.5 billion to £27.6 billion in the three months to January 2023, as exports fell by more than imports.
There was a fall in goods export values to the EU of 4.2% (driven by lower fuels, chemicals and material manufactured goods exports). This was only partially offset by a rise in goods export values to the rest of the world by 0.9% (largely in higher chemicals exports to the United States and pharmaceutical exports to South Korea).
Reacting to the figures, British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Head of Trade Policy, William Bain, said: “There was no big boost to trade volumes to start 2023. Removing cyclical factors in the trade data, goods export volumes to both the EU and rest of the world, over the past year, have remained constant.”
However, he went on, goods trade values fell in January. On the imports side this can be partly explained by balancing it against the stronger performance in machinery and transport orders in December 2022.
Overall, Mr Bain concluded, there has been no upward movement in trade with total goods import values down by 1.6% in the three months to January 2023, compared with the three months before then, and goods export values down by 4% over the same period.
