British trade deficit narrows to 1.3bn pounds in March

The British trade deficit in goods and services was estimated to be 1.3 billion pounds (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in March 2014, as compared to 1.7 billion pounds a month before, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Friday. Britain had a 8.5 billion pounds deficit in goods, and an estimated surplus of 7.2 billion in services in March, data showed. Exports of goods increased by 4.9 percent between February and March 2014 to 24.6 billion pounds, reflecting an improvement in exports of finished manufactures, including jewelry, and cars. Imports of goods increased by 2.8 percent over the same period to 33.1 billion pounds. In the first quarter of 2014, British exports of goods declined by 3.7 percent to 72 billion pounds, while imports of goods shrank by 2.8 percent to 98.7 billion pounds, figures showed. The current account deficit for the year was 71.1 billion pounds, equivalent to 4.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), slightly lower than the highest current deficit at 4.6 percent of GDP recorded in 1989, data showed by ONS at the end of March. (1 British pound = 1.69 U.S. dollars)