UK TRADE DEFICIT FALLS AFTER RECORD RISE IN EXPORTS

A record jump for Britain’s goods exports helped the country’s trade deficit fall
more than expected in April.
Coming after a set of healthy figures from the high street and the manufacturing
sector, the trade figures showed the UK economy had steadied ahead of the EU
referendum, following a wobble in the first three months of the year.
The chancellor, George Osborne, was handed an extra boost after figures
showed the growth in exports over the past year was mainly to the rest of the EU,
with only a small rise in sales to the rest of the world.
Exports of British-made goods to the EU increased by 10.3% compared with a
year ago while non-EU exports nudged just 1.9% higher.
However, in April alone exports to the rest of the world performed better after a
£1.3bn jump to a record £14bn, compared with a £900m rise in exports to the EU.
The latest figures also ease concerns after last month’s figures showed Britain’s
trade deficit with other EU countries was running at a record high. Britain’s current
account deficit, which reflects the trade gap with the rest of the world and the
shortfall between money paid out by the UK and money coming in, is one of the
biggest in the world.
The rise in the deficit to almost 7% in March was seized on by campaigners for
Britain to remain in the EU, who argued it would only worsen if Britain quit the
single market. Brexit supporters have argued that bringing down trade barriers
outside the EU would spur exports to the rest of the world.
Overall, goods exports volumes increased by 11.2% in April – the biggest
monthly rise since records began in 1998. At £26.1bn, the total value of goods
exported in April was close to the record high set in June 2013. Imports also
increased, by £2bn to £36.6bn.
The trade deficit in goods fell to £10.5bn from a downwardly revised £10.6bn in
March, according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics. The total trade
deficit, including services, narrowed to a seven-month low of £3.3bn in April from a
downwardly revised £3.5bn in March and a peak of £5.2bn in January.
 The increase in exports to the EU follows a steady rise in economic growth
across the 28 member states, at a time when emerging economies have struggled to
maintain the strong expansion of the last two decades and previously fast-growing
countries Russia, Brazil and South Africa have slumped into recession.
Zach Witton, the deputy chief economist at EEF, the manufacturers’
organisation, said the data provided some encouragement that the UK’s export
performance was improving, “backing up recent signs that Europe’s economic
recovery is gaining momentum, while global growth may be starting to turn a
corner”.
He said it was also possible that the recent weakness of sterling may be
providing some support for exporters, though there was still “a long way to go to
reach the government’s export target of £1tn annually by 2020”.
Howard Archer, the chief economist at IHS Global Insight, said the figures gave
hope that the overall weakening of the pound since late-2015 could be feeding
through to help UK exporters. “Along with the jump in industrial production in April
and decent retail sales growth, the trade data suggests UK GDP growth could be
holding up better in the second quarter than has been thought – despite the heightened
uncertainty,” he said.
In 2015, the sale of goods and services to the EU accounted for 44% of total
exports. Almost half of the UK’s exports of goods go to the EU, compared with 39%
of services. The share of exports to the EU has fallen by more than 10 percentage
points over the last 15 years.

RICHEST 62 PEOPLE AS WEALTHY AS HALF OF WORLD'S

POPULATION, SAYS OXFAM
The vast and growing gap between rich and poor has been laid bare in a new
Oxfam report showing that the 62 richest billionaires own as much wealth as the
poorer half of the world’s population.
The report calls for urgent action to deal with a trendshowing that 1% of people
own more wealth than the other 99% combined.
 Oxfam said that the wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010
and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400m. In the same period,
the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500bn (£350bn) to $1.76tn.
The charity said that, in 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as
the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in 2015.
Leading figures from Pope Francis to Christine Lagarde, the managing director
of the International Monetary Fund, have called for action to reverse the trend in
inequality, but Oxfam said words had not been translated into action. Its prediction
that the richest 1% would own the same wealth as the poorest 50% by 2016 had come
true a year earlier than expected.
Oxfam cited estimates that rich individuals have placed a total of $7.6tn in
offshore accounts, adding that if tax were paid on the income that this wealth
generates, an extra $190bn would be available to governments every year.
The Equality Trust, which campaigns against inequality in the UK, said Britain’s
100 richest families had increased their wealth by at least £57bn since 2010, a period
in which average incomes declined.
Duncan Exley, the trust’s director, said: “Inequality, both globally but also in the
UK, is now at staggering levels. We know that such a vast gap between the richest
and the rest of us is bad for our economy and society. We now need our politicians to
wake up and address this dangerous concentration of wealth and power in the hands
of so few.”