UK trade gap widens as exporters suffer
The UK trade deficit increased during June to £6.5 billion against £6.2 billion in May, a move which was unexpected. Many people had forecast the gap to remain fairly stable at around £6.2 and even though exports rose by 1.4%, imports rose by a larger 2.2%. The UK currency had initially suffered a massive decline against the likes of the dollar and the Euro in the early days of the recession but just lately the majority of the fall has been eliminated.
While it was inevitable that at some stage the UK currency would improve, there had been hopes that a weaker sterling would assist exporters in the UK and ultimately pull the UK economy out of recession. However, the news that imports are still outstripping exports is positive for the wider economy and the bad news for exporters. It seems to indicate that even though sterling denominated pricing will have fallen compared to two years ago, it does not appear to have fallen enough to put the export industry on a more stable footing.
However, just last week the Bank of England suggested that the UK export industry was more stable than at any time over the last two years and ultimately a perceived weakness in this area was potentially caused by weak economies overseas. As the UK, and other countries of the world, move out of recession the situation should become clearer.
Share this..
Related stories
Revised government statistics dampen recovery hopes
With news that the Office for National Statistics has today revised the fall in construction output for the first quarter of 2009, there are real concerns of the UK economy is performing worse than previously thought. The construction output figure for the first quarter of 2009 has been revised from fall of 2.4% to a fall of 9% which in itself would knock a further 0.3 percentage points off GDP fo...
Read MoreWhy did the Competition Commission lose an appeal against PPI?
The very fact that the Competition Commission Tribunal has overturned a recent judgement by the Competition Commission regarding PPI (payment protection insurance) has caused ripples across the whole financial sector. The case set out by the Competition Commission seemed to be fairly straightforward in that many people who agreed loans with their banks and other financial institutions were apparen...
Read MoreAlistair Darling goes on the offensive against Goldman Sachs
Alistair Darling has openly criticised US banking giant Goldman Sachs over plans to pay billions of dollars in staff bonuses at a time when the UK economy is struggling and investment markets are booming. While Goldman Sachs itself may not have received any state funding from the UK government, it has received substantial financial assistance from the US authorities, and indeed the UK financial ma...
Read MoreMarks & Spencer set to announce 1000 job cuts
This week's announcement of the Marks & Spencer sales figures for the Christmas and New Year period is set to disappoint the market and will be accompanied by a rumoured 1000 job cuts. Those who regularly read this site will know that Marks & Spencer's changed its redundancy guidelines earlier this year and they now look like come into play much sooner than anyone had anticipated.
A...
More needed to get the economy moving
Prime Minister David Cameron has recently made claims that the UK is in a better financial position than it was back in 1930. He denied claims that the slump witnessed over 80 years ago was similar to that of now. He said: "We are obviously facing in Europe a difficult set of circumstances that is harming our growth and our prospects and its going to take time to fix. Frankly, Britain needs to...
Read More