The UK's total trade deficit narrowed substantially during September from the previous month's Hurricane Katrina ravaged data, despite the first back-to-back oil deficit in 25 years, official figures showed today The office of National Statistics said the oil deficit in September stood at 201 mln stg against the 507 mln shortfall recorded in August. That was the first time the oil account has been in the red for two consecutive months since monthly records began in 1980. A spokeswoman for the statistics office said the oil account in September was affected by production shut downs in the North Sea and a fire in one of the fields, though to a lesser extent than in August Over the third quarter as a whole, the oil account was in deficit to the tune of 0.7 bln stg against a surplus of 0.5 bln in the previous quarter. Again, that was the first quarterly oil deficit since 1980
Overall, the statistics office said the UK's deficit on trade in goods and services in September narrowed to 3.9 bln stg against the record 5.6 bln shortfall recorded in August
The August data was affected by a 1.4 bln stg downward adjustment to services data to account for the estimated payment claims by Lloyd's of London arising from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. Because of the Katrina effects, the third quarter trade deficit widened to 13.3 bln stg from 9.8 bln in the previous quarter. However, the statistics office said the trend has remained flat in recent months
A more detailed look at the September figures showed that the goods deficit during the month narrowed to 5.4 bln stg from an upwardly revised record 5.9 bln stg in August, despite the deficit in the oil account
The September outcome was better than expectations but once the upward revision in August is taken into account, it was largely in line with forecasts. Analysts had predicted that the deficit would be unchanged from August's original estimate of 5.6 bln
On a geographical basis, the EU deficit during September stood at 3.1 bln stg against 2.8 bln in August, while the non-EU shortfall narrowed to 2.3 bln stg from 3.1 bln in August. The consensus of analysts forecasts was for the non-EU deficit to narrow to 3.0 bln from the original 3.2 bln August estimate
The statistics office said total exports of goods during September rose 2 pct to 18.1 bln stg while total imports of goods fell 0.5 pct to 23.5 bln. In the third quarter of the year, the total trade in goods deficit widened by 2.1 bln stg to 16.7 bln
Geographically, the third quarter deficit with EU countries was 0.5 bln wider at 8.8 bln while the non-EU shortfall was 1.7 bln wider at 8.0 bln Here again, the statistics office said the goods deficit has been fairly flat in recent months
Meanwhile, the services surplus increased to 1.6 bln stg from the Katrina-ravaged 0.3 bln in August. The September surplus is the same as that recorded in July