Britain's trade deficit as worrying as its budget deficit

Britain's poor record in exporting to the fast-growing economies of the developing world is said to be the reason for this weak performance. That's wrong, according to Simon Tilford, of the CER [in this insight article]. He says exports to non-EU markets have been growing fast, up 65% for goods and 35% for services between 2006 and 2012. It is trade with the EU that has been the problem, with exports of goods falling by 5% and services exports rising by 23% over the same six-year period. Britain runs a current account deficit of 4.5% with the EU and a surplus with the rest of the world.