Trade and the Balance of Payments

摘要

1.The sharp improvement in export performance in the early part of the year has faltered, with exports falling by 1.3% in 2011Q2. Imports, on the other hand, declined by just 0.3% over the same period causing net trade to subtract 0.3 percentage points (%ppt) from growth in Q2. 2. Looking ahead, we expect UK export performance to remain subdued in the short term. The recent turmoil in financial markets has caused a sharp slowdown in demand in most of the UK's key export markets, in particular the US and Europe, and we expect the softer patch to last until the spring. Survey data also suggests that demand from emerging markets in Asia has slowed, implying that the rapid reorientation of UK exports towards faster growing emerging nations and away from our traditional export markets, has been disrupted as well.