Trade in Services and Trade by Industry

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office for national statistics

Business, industry and trade

24 April 2019

Trade in Services and Trade by Industry

ONS has today released Q4 2018 Trade in Services data, which show that exports and imports of services were higher in Q4 2018 than Q4 2017 by £2.6bn and £4.4bn respectively. Exports of services grew by £4.6bn between 2017 and 2018, while imports of services grew by £10.6 billon, leading to a narrowing of the trade in services surplus. In 2018, the largest country by service type export was of other business services to the US (£24.2bn) while the largest country by service type import was of travel services from Spain (£11.2bn).

UK trade in services by partner country: October to December 2018

Separate data published today looking at trade by industry show that in 2017 the largest exporting and importing industry was ‘wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles’, which exported 67.7% of its goods to, and imported 53.7% of its goods from, EU countries. This industry also accounted for the largest increase in exports and imports in 2017.

UK trade in goods by industry, country and commodity

In addition, ONS has today published updated tables giving a full quarterly breakdown of total trade by country and type of good and service.

UK trade, quarterly trade in goods and services tables: October to December 2018

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