LONDON, Jan 9 - Britain's trade deficit with the rest of the world widened unexpectedly to 4.41 billion pounds in November from 4.25 billion the month before as exports fell faster than imports, official data showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics said exports in the month fell two percent to 15.5 billion pounds, mainly due to a sharp fall in oil exports, while imports sank just under one percent to 19.9 billion pounds. The surplus on trade in oil fell to just 202 million pounds from 235 million in October. The ONS said the Department of Trade and Industry could offer no explanation for the low number although previous months had been dogged by maintenance shutdowns in the North Sea. In the latest three months, the country suffered a record trade deficit of 13.1 billion pounds, up from 11.6 billion in the three months to August. The breakdown of the numbers also showed that exports to the United States fell by nearly 10 percent on the month to 2.3 billion pounds in spite of the rapid growth in the U.S. economy. That may raise fears that the weakening dollar is crimping UK exports into the world's biggest economy. The pound hit an 11-year high against the dollar this week of over $1.83.
The deficit with countries in the European Union widened to just over 2.1 billion pounds, just shy of September's record figure. The shortfall with non-EU countries remained steady at 2.35 billion pounds, slightly higher than expected. The ONS said the trends in the goods and total trade deficits was widening, something that will concern economists who have been expecting that the sharp pick-up in the world economy would boost exports and reduce the trade deficit. The total trade deficit, which includes Britain's traditional surplus in trade in services such as insurance and banking, widened to 3.3 billion pounds in November but hit a record 10.2 billion in the three months to November.//