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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: XBrit who wrote (23111)	12/9/2004 2:03:27 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Another maladjusted economy, must be an Anglo thing? The only difference being high enough rates (by necessity I suppose) to mount a feeble currency defense. Could get even worse as UK North Sea oil production plummets going forward. beacon1.rjf.com UK trade deficit grows Press Association Thursday December 9, 2004 The UK trade deficit widened to £5.3bn in October after imports hit their highest level since records began, official data showed today. The figure was worse than the £4.7bn that had been expected in the City, and marked a sharp deterioration from the £4.4bn gap of the previous month. Falling demand for UK goods among countries outside the EU also contributed to the deficit, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Exports to non-EU nations declined by 7.5%, while the total value of goods imported to the UK rose by 2.5% to reach a record £21.5bn. The trade gap in the first 10 months of this year totalled £34bn - £1.2bn worse than the deficit for the whole of last year. David Page, an Investec economist, said the figures were "very disappointing" at a time when a pick up in global growth should have helped exporters. "It questions whether the UK is going to be able to close its trade gap any time soon," he said. The HSBC economist John Butler said the trade deficit in goods now stood at around 5.5% of GDP, which was almost as big a figure as the US. The underlying gap was even worse because the UK oil balance switched back into surplus after registering its first deficit for 13 years in September. Production recovered following maintenance work on North Sea oil rigs, and the UK exported oil worth £203m more than it bought in from overseas during October. The breakdown of today's data puts the trade gap with nations in the enlarged EU at £2.4bn, compared with £2.1bn in the previous month. At the same time, the deficit with countries outside the EU widened to £2.9bn from £2.4bn on the back of lower exports of manufactured goods. The surplus on trade in services was £1.5bn, meaning the total UK deficit was £3.8bn.