国际英语资讯:Manufacturing sector continues to shine in British economy_时事

国际英语资讯:Manufacturing sector continues to shine in British economy

TRADE FIGURES DISAPPOINT

Trade figures for October were also released by the ONS, with the deficit at 1.4 billion pounds (1.88 billion U.S. dollars), much smaller than the consensus expectation of 3 billion pounds.

September's deficit also was revised smaller, to 1.1 billion pounds from 2.8 billion.

"The trade deficit widened because imports rose more than exports -- but if you look at exports volume data of traded goods there was quite reasonable export growth in October," said Archer.

The global economy is growing (the International Monetary Fund predicting in October growth of 3.6 percent for 2017) with global trade doing well and manufacturing across advanced and developing economies expanding.

The production figures showed that car manufacturers increased production by 6.3 percent in October over the same month last year.

This was driven by exports, with the trade figures showing that car exporters recorded the highest ever value of exports in November, worth more than 4 billion pounds.

However, Archer noted that British export performance had been "fairly erratic".

"Overall the trade sector has not done as well as could have been hoped given the amount that sterling has fallen," he said.

"And given the growth in global trade and global growth exports should be in a sweet spot; the environment for exports is pretty good. You'd expect them to be doing well." (1 pound = 1.34 U.S. dollars)