UK foreign trade deficit widens unexpectedly in June

Britain's trade deficit with the rest of the world increased in June on the back of higher volumes of imported goods and services.

The total trade deficit worsened by £2.0bn to -£4.6bn, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Economists had penciled-in a shortfall of -£2.4bn.

On the other hand, figures for the total trade deficit in April and May were revised lower by £0.3bn and £0.6bn, with higher exports and lower imports accounting for each, respectively.

The second quarter deficit on trade in goods and services widened by £0.1bn to £8.9bn in comparison to the first three months of the year, ONS said.

Yet removing the effect of oil, prices for goods exports fell by 0.4% on the quarter - the first negative quarter since quarter four of 2015 - while those for imports rose by 0.1%.

In terms of year-on-year rates of change, export and import volumes of goods grew by 5.0% and 4.8%, respectively, during the second quarter.

Increased imports of goods, despite a considerable weakening in sterling were attributed by ONS to the UK's increasing integration into global supply chains.

Meanwhile, export and import prices rose by 8.2% and 7.8% on the year with Sterling depreciating by 8.7% over the same time span.

Quarter-on-quarter, exports of goods to countries from outside the European Union declined by 1.4%, acting as a partial offset to a 2.0% rise in sales to EU nations.

That was mainly the result of a fall in exports of machinery and transport equipment (cars, aircraft, electrical machinery and mechanical machinery) and oil.