UK's trade gap narrows to £4.1bn

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The UK's trade deficit in goods and services fell in August as the country enjoyed the strongest exports for a year, official figures have shown.

A measure of the difference between what the UK exports and imports, the overall deficit narrowed to £4.1bn from a revised £4.6bn in July.

The improvement was mainly due to the fall in the goods deficit, which shrank to £6.9bn, but oil exports were lower.

Global growth had outweighed the strong pound, analysts said.

Annual maintenance work depressed oil production and pushed the UK's oil gap into a monthly deficit of £506m, its highest in a year.

Analysts were mildly encouraged by the news.

"Overall trade is making a fairly neutral contribution to gross domestic product as opposed to its more familiar drag, but I don't think anyone would expect an export led recovery," Ross Walker at the Royal Bank of Scotland said.