UK July Goods Trade Deficit Widens To GBP7.1B

LONDON -The U.K.'s goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to GBP7.1 billion in July from GBP6.5 billion in June as imports rose more than exports, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday.

The June deficit was revised from a previously published figure of GBP6.3 billion.

The deficit in July was much wider than expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires last week forecast the trade deficit would widen to GBP6.4 billion.

ONS said that total imports rose to GBP26.3 billion in the month compared with GBP25.3 billion the month before. The rise, it said, was mainly due to higher imports of consumer goods, cars, chemicals, and food, drink and tobacco.

Exports also rose, but only by around GBP0.5 billion. That was driven by higher overseas purchases of U.K.-produced capital goods and chemicals, ONS said.

ONS's trade data have been bedeviled by inaccuracy and revision in recent times, mainly due to problems recording import and export levels following a European-wide value-added tax scam.

There was a further problem Tuesday when ONS admitted that GBP300 million of oil exports had been double-counted in June, because of an incorrect return from an oil trader.

As a result, the U.K.'s oil trade balance was slightly in deficit in June, compared with a previously published surplus. In July the oil trade deficit widened further to GBP0.3 billion.

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