Oil furthers UK May trade deficit

The UK has been increasing its stocks of oil

The UK's trade deficit with the rest of the world grew unexpectedly in May, new figures show, with oil seeing its greatest deficit since January.

The UK trade gap with the rest of the world hit £6.8bn ($12.41bn), from April's revised number of £5.6bn.

Oil imports rose sharply amid falling production in the UK and moves to increase oil stocks, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Analysts fear that rising oil costs could dampen the economy.

Even allowing for the fact that the oil balance swung back into deficit, the trade deficit was significantly larger than expected in May Howard Archer, economist, Global Insight

Rising energy costs can dent firms' profits as well as hamper consumer spending - thus causing the economy to cool.

There have been fears that the UK, which decided to maintain interest rates at 4.5% in early July for the 11th time, could raise rates to temper inflation.

In May, the oil deficit was £320m compared to a surplus of some £200m in April.

Oil prices have been increasing in recent months, with crude oil tipping over the $75 mark in early July.

"Even allowing for the fact that the oil balance swung back into deficit, the trade deficit was significantly larger than expected in May," said Howard Archer of Global Insight.

Excluding oil, the deficit widened to reach its highest level since February.

The total goods deficit, excluding oil and other one-off items, widened to £6.1bn in May from 5.6 in April, as more cars were imported and fewer capital goods were exported.

The trade deficit with non-EU countries was also wider than expected reaching £3.7bn in May up from April's figure of 3.3bn in April.

However not all analysts were gloomy.

"The deficit remains sustainable, and therefore a change in interest rates is unlikely until at least the end of the year," said Simon Wallace at the Centre for Economics and Business Research.