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Economy in Brief
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
Philadelphia Fed Factory Conditions Improve; Prices Jump
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.2 during April...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Are Little Changed
Initial unemployment insurance claims slipped to 232,000 (-6.1% y/y) during the week ended April 14...
U.K. Retail Sales Fall
U.K. GDP is expected to cool its jets when the first quarter GDP number is released...
by Carol Stone June 9, 2006
We talked about UK trade just a month ago, but it seems worth revisiting right away. The trade deficit (on goods and services) in April held at March's level, £4.0 billion (a slight revision from the initial £3.8 billion). Both exports and imports eased, imports for a second month. At £33.8 billion, imports are 2.5% below their February peak. Exports edged down 0.4% in April after a 1.7% increase in March. Even so, both exports and imports remain substantially above comparable 2005 amounts.
Two-way trade in fuel remains an important contributor to total UK trade flows even though fuel is only around 8% of both total exports and imports. But exports of crude oil fell 17.6% in April after a 48.3% jump in March. Volume dropped while prices continued rising. The value per tonne increased 6% in April alone. Notably, other exports, excluding fuels, held steady with March and are still more than 13% above a year ago.
Imports of fuel had risen sharply in March and dropped even more sharply in April, maintaining a wide seesaw pattern for a fourth month. As with fuel exports, volume corrected while prices continued rising. A £0.6 billion decline in the value of fuel imports more than offset an increase in other goods and services of 1.5%.
Among non-fuel products, manufactures are sustaining a trade deficit of about £4.4 billion, although there is some tendency toward an improving turn as exports are growing while imports have moderated in both March and April. The other major segment showing a trade deficit is food, with food imports growing steadily while exports remain flat. That generates a widening deficit that reached £1.2 billion on average for the first four months this year, 26% of the total trade deficit.
UK Trade, SA, Bil.£ | Apr 2006 | Mar 2006 | Feb 2006 | Apr 2005 | Monthly Averages|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | |||||
Trade Balance: Goods & Services | -3.98 | -4.00 | -5.22 | -3.86 | -4.05 | -3.29 | -2.64 |
Exports | 29.90 | 30.01 | 29.52 | 26.07 | 26.41 | 24.49 | 23.50 |
Imports | 33.88 | 34.01 | 34.75 | 29.93 | 30.46 | 27.78 | 26.14 |
Goods | -5.75 | -5.71 | -7.18 | -5.65 | -5.61 | -5.07 | -4.05 |
Fuels | +0.07 | -0.43 | -0.61 | -0.20 | -0.29 | 0.03 | 0.35 |
Exports | 2.30 | 2.40 | 1.93 | 1.68 | 1.79 | 1.49 | 1.38 |
Imports | 2.23 | 2.83 | 2.54 | 1.88 | 2.08 | 1.46 | 1.03 |
Services | 1.77 | 1.71 | 1.96 | 1.79 | 1.56 | 1.79 | 1.41 |