Between Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2016 and Quarter 1 (Jan to March) 2017, the total trade deficit (goods and services) widened by £5.7 billion to £10.5 billion; this followed a sharp narrowing in Quarter 4 2016.

The UK's total trade deficit (goods and services) widened by £2.3 billion between February and March 2017 to £4.9 billion, contributing nearly half of the quarterly deficit.

At the commodity level, the main causes of the widening of the deficit in Quarter 1 2017 were increased imports of machinery and transport equipment (mainly mechanical machinery and cars), oil and chemicals; these commodities also contributed the most to the increase in imports in March 2017.

Total imports increased by £2.9 billion between February and March 2017, with an increase in imports of goods from both EU and non-EU countries.

Since the last UK trade release, the trade balance for February 2017 has revised up by £1.0 billion; this is mainly due to a downward revision to the imports of goods.