Balance of payments shows improvement

Britain’s trading position with the rest of the world improved slightly in the first quarter of the year, official figures show.

The UK’s current account deficit was £26.5 billion in the January to March 2015 quarter, down from a revised deficit of £28.9 billion in the October to December 2014 quarter.

The trade in services surplus was £22.9 billion in in the first quarter of the year, a decrease of £0.2 billion from the final quarter of 2014. Exports were £0.2 billion higher than the previous quarter, at £55.2 billion, while imports increased by £0.5 billion to £32.3 billion.

The trade in goods deficit widened to £30.4 billion, compared with £30.1 billion in the previous quarter as exports fell by £2.2 billion, while imports fell by just £1.9 billion.

The deficit with the EU narrowed to £29.9 billion against £30.6 billion. Meanwhile, the current account surplus with non-EU countries widened to £3.3 billion from £1.6 billion over the two quarters.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_408762.pdf