June 13, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1428

LONDON, June 12: Britain’s deficit in the trading of goods globally dropped in April to the lowest level for nearly two years, official data showed on Tuesday.

The nation’s deficit with the rest of the world narrowed to 6.316 billion pounds in April from the March figure, the lowest level since October 2005, the Office for National Statistics said.

Market expectations were for a deficit of 7.0 billion pounds in April. The deficit stood at 7.157 billion pounds in March.

“In truth, the data most likely reflect the simple month-to-month volatility of these series, without really sending any strong signal,” noted Calyon analyst Daragh Maher.

“It is hard to know how excited to get about this most recent improvement in the deficit,” he added.

Exports in April shrank to 18.2 billion pounds from 18.3 billion in March, while imports were unchanged at 24.5 billion pounds.

Britain’s trade deficit with non-EU countries was also unchanged at 3.9 billion pounds.

But its deficit with the other 26 EU countries improved to 2.4bn pounds from 3.3bn in March. This was the lowest EU deficit since November.—AFP