The UK economy seems to face some issues. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), published figures on Friday indicating a widening trade deficit. This is the third month is a row when this takes place. The trade deficit widened up to £9.4bn from £9.2bn. Economists presented optimistic prospects earlier, suggesting that the UK trade deficit will diminish to £8.8 bn.

Unfortunately for the British, the events taking place recently took their toll on the economy. The Eurozone economy is weak. Italy entered its third economic recession just a couple of days ago, as its GDP saw negative growth for a consecutive quarter. The British pound is strong at the moment, making British goods expensive on foreign markets. Another explanation for the expanding trade deficit rests in the consequences produced by the tensions between Russia and the Western countries.

The economic fight between the two parts hurt the global economy. Among other sanctions, the Western countries decided to cut Russian banks from European markets. Russia responded on Thursday by taking a strong large-scale measure. As of yesterday, all food imported from the 27 EU states, U.S, Canada, Australia and Norway are banned on the Russian market.

UK trade deficit widens because less oil and manufacturing goods are exported

Britain exported less oil and manufacturing goods in June, an important reason why the exports dropped by £400 million. The total value of exported goods in June totaled £23.5 billion. Imports fell by just £100 million, totaling £32.9 billion. Right now Britain’s trade with states from outside the EU faces difficulties. Both imports and exports with non-EU states dropped.

Another explanation for the British recent volatile trade is the fact that aircrafts have been traded in the past months. These are high value infrequent trades and skew the statistics easily.

The British construction sector output saw a 1.2 percent growth in June, according to other separate data, Reuters reports.

On the matter of UK trade deficit, Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, declares for The Guardian that “The hope has been that gradually improving global growth will increasingly help UK exports over the coming months, but this hope is under threat from heightened global geopolitical tensions. In particular, UK exporters will be perturbed by current worrying signs that already weak eurozone growth is faltering anew as deteriorating relations with Russia and tit-for-tat sanctions weigh down on confidence.