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| UK trade deficit widens in December | UK trade deficit widens in December |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| The UK's trade deficit in goods and services widened in December to its highest level since August 2005, after a jump in imports. | |
| Imports were lifted by a rise in orders for aircraft, ahead of a change in VAT. | |
| The deficit - the difference between the UK's exports and imports - grew to £4.831bn from £3.947bn in November, the Office for National Statistics said. | The deficit - the difference between the UK's exports and imports - grew to £4.831bn from £3.947bn in November, the Office for National Statistics said. |
| Later, the government will announce new measures to encourage small and medium-sized companies to export more. | Later, the government will announce new measures to encourage small and medium-sized companies to export more. |
| The strategy will be outlined in a Trade and Investment White Paper. | The strategy will be outlined in a Trade and Investment White Paper. |
| For the whole of 2010, the UK's deficit grew to £46.2bn from £29.7bn in 2009, the ONS said in its latest release. | |
| Weather effect? | |
| In December, exports from the UK fell slightly to £37.647bn. | |
| Imports rose by £868m to reach a new high of £42.478bn. | |
| That included a £652m increase in aircraft imports. | |
| This also contributed to the trade deficit for goods hitting a record high of £9.247bn, compared with £8.460bn in November. | |
| The ONS also said that there was some evidence that adverse weather had affected trade volumes, although some of this was compensated for on other days in the month. | |
| "The headline data is disappointing, but the impact of the weather really was always going to make it very hard to discern the underlying trend," said David Tinsley from National Australia Bank. | |
| "So while they're somewhat disappointing I would leave them aside until we get the January figures and can assess whether there has been a bounce back in some of the issues. | |
| "There's also an erratic story going on in terms of beating the VAT hike, in terms of aircraft imports, which are up over half a billion pounds, so that explains part of it as well," he added. |