United Kingdom Balance of Trade

Last Release

Oct 31, 2025

Actual

-4,824

Units In

GBP Million

-1,094

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Jan 15, 2026

Time to Release

1 Months 1 Days 18 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
8,131 Dec 2019	-16,159 Jan 2022	-1,560.01 GBP Million	1955-2025	Office for National Statistics

The UK's trade balance has been in deficit since 1998, due to deficits in trade in goods which are partly offset by surpluses in trade in services. The level of total UK trade in goods as a proportion of total trade in goods and services has been gradually declining since 1986 after peaking at 75 percent in 1985. This is consistent with the rising share of UK trade in services (35 percent of total trade in 2017). In 2017, the biggest goods deficits were recorded with Germany, China, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium & Luxembourg and Italy; and the largest surpluses were recorded with the United States, Ireland and South Korea.

Latest Updates

The UK trade deficit widened to £4.82 billion in October 2025, up from £1.09 billion in September, marking the largest gap since February. Exports fell 0.3% month-on-month to a four-month low of £77.00 billion, while imports rose 4.5% to a seven-month high of £81.82 billion. Goods exports fell 0.8% month-on-month to a four-month low of £30.96 billion, weighed down by lower shipments to non-EU countries (-3.0%), due to smaller increases in exports of most commodities. By contrast, goods exports to the EU rose 1.7%, primarily due to higher exports of machinery and transport equipment, including mechanical power generators to Spain. Exports of goods to the US, including precious metals, jumped 27.0% in October, following two consecutive monthly declines. Services exports edged up 0.1% to £46.04 billion. On the import side, goods imports rose 6.8% to an eight-month high of £53.51 billion, while services imports increased 0.4% to a four-month high of £28.32 billion.