UK trade deficit more than doubles in August

The UK's trade deficit more than doubled in August as imports of goods outstripped a small uptick in services exports.

Raising questions over the feasibility of a UK manufacturing renaissance, the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics paint a troubling picture. The ONS said the overall difference in goods and services imported and exported widened to £4.2bn in August, up from £1.7bn in July. The overall deficit was driven by a jump in goods imports, with the goods deficit widening from £7.3bn to £9.8bn. A small increase in the surplus from UK services - which rose from £5.6bn to £5.7bn - was nowhere near enough to counter the overall jump in the deficit. On a three-month view, t...