UK trade deficit level in January

Britain has been running a trade deficit for a number of years

The UK trade's deficit with the rest of the world was £4.1bn in January, unchanged from December, said the Office for National Statistics.

For goods alone, the deficit - the difference between what the UK exports and imports - totalled £7.5bn, also unchanged from the last month of 2007.

The monthly trade surplus in services remained level at £3.4bn.

However, higher raw material costs meant that import price inflation rose at its fastest rate in almost 15 years.

The import price index excluding oil jumped 2.2%, the biggest rise since July 1993.

'Some concern'

Analysts said the results were in line with expectations.

"The trade numbers do provide some cause for concern but we would hope to see some narrowing in the deficit as sterling's weakness starts to benefit export markets," said David Page at Investec.

Total exports of goods in January rose by 6.5% to £20bn, while imports gained 4.5% to £27.5bn.

Export of services added less than £100m to £35.2bn, while imports fell by £200m to £24.8bn.