Britain's trade deficit in goods hit a record high in January as exports to the US plunged, official figures showed today.
The trade gap in goods rose to £5.6 billion sterling in January from a revised £4 billion in the previous month and compared with analysts' expectations of £4.2 billion.
Statisticians said the widening in the deficit was driven by a 30 per cent drop in exports to the United States. Although some of this was to be expected, given the United States was Britain's largest single market and December's exports there were unusually high, they said sterling's exchange rate may have also played a part.
The pound has surged against the dollar in recent months as the greenback has lost ground against most major currencies.
Separately, manufacturing production rose by just 0.2 per cent in January, weaker than the 0.5 per cent gain predicted by City economists. This still took the annual rate of increase up to 1.5 per cent from 0.9 per cent in December.
The wider measure of industrial production rose just 0.1 per cent in January and by 0.4 per cent on a year ago, also weaker than expected.
