- The 2025 Pink Book shows that the UK’s trade balance narrowed to a deficit of £25.1 billion in 2024, but the goods trade deficit widened to £210.7 billion due to lower goods exports.
- UK exports of goods and services to the EU and the US increased in the first and second quarters of 2025, with combined growth of £9.67 billion to the EU and more than £3 billion to the US compared to the same period in 2024.
- Exports of physical goods alone fell in the first half of 2025 – £89.044 billion to the EU and £31.894 billion to the US – suggesting that services exports are offsetting weak goods trade.
The Pink Book 2025 – the official annual review of cross-border transactions across all modes, including air freight – has revealed that despite the UK’s trade balance narrowing, the trade deficit in goods widened to £210.7 billion last year. Moving to 2025, Q1 and Q2 exports to the UK’s two main markets – the US and the EU – also present a mixed picture, says international delivery expert Barcelheiro.
The long-awaited “Pink Book 2025” review of UK trade has revealed a mixed set of economic results for the past year, says international delivery expert Barcelheiro. The good news is that the UK’s trade balance narrows to a deficit of £25.1 billion (0.9% of gross domestic product or GDP) from a deficit of £32.1 billion (1.2% of GDP) in 2023.
The Pink Book also looks at broader economic outcomes. It reveals that the UK’s current account deficit (which includes factors such as UK external investment) narrowed to £63.2 billion (2.2% of GDP) in 2024 from a revised deficit of £98.3 billion (3.6% of GDP) in 2023.
However, the bad news was that Britain’s goods trade deficit widened to 7.3% (£210.7 billion) in 2024, up from 7% of GDP (£192.1 billion) in 2023. The Pink Book says last year’s goods trade deficit was due to the lower value of goods exports compared to 2023.
“To put these figures in context, the UK recorded the second-largest current account deficit of the G7 (G7) economies in 2024, at 2.2% of GDP. The US recorded the largest deficit ever, at 4% of GDP. In contrast, Germany recorded the highest current account surplus 5.8% of GDP.
“These Pink Book results do not exactly show that the UK economy was in good health in 2024. However, separate quarterly trade estimates recently released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the UK enjoyed strong combined exports of goods and services to both its main export markets, the EU and the USA, in the first half of 2025.
In the first quarter (January-March) 2025, UK exports of goods and services to the EU27 totaled £92.837 billion. In the second quarter (April-June) it rose to £96.279 billion. On a year-over-year basis, that was a big jump. This is because in the first quarter of 2024, UK exports to the EU amounted to £87.561 billion, rising to £91,884 in the second quarter. Comparing Q1 and Q2 2025 to the same period last year, this is an increase of £9.67 billion year-on-year.
“It was a similarly rosy picture for UK exports of bulk goods and services to the US in the first half of this year.” Remember that the US is the UK’s largest single country market. Exports to the United States totaled £50.893 billion in the first quarter of 2025 and £49.781 billion in the second quarter – a healthy result when we take into account the potential impact of the “Liberation Day” tariffs announced by President Trump on April 2. In comparison, the first quarter of 2024 saw exports worth £47.162 billion of goods and services, and £50.479 billion in the second quarter of 2024. As a result, the combined total for the first quarter and the second quarter of 2025 was more than £3 billion compared to the same period last year.
“However, in terms of the physical export of goods alone (excluding services), the picture is less rosy than bright red. The combined value of this year’s Q1 and Q2 goods exports to the EU was £89.044 billion, compared to last year’s combined Q1 and Q2 figures of £91.542 billion. Likewise, the combined value of UK goods exports to the US for Q1 and Q2 this year was £31.894 billion, This compares to £33.331 billion for the same period last year and shows that UK services exports have to do a lot of the heavy lifting while goods exports suffer.
“Further government analysis reveals that total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and the US amounted to £331.2 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2025, an increase of 6.2% or £19.4 billion over the four quarters to the end of Q2 2024. However, the total value of UK exports of goods alone to the US was just £11.1 billion in the same period, down 22.1% on an annual basis.
Whatever the ongoing impact of US tariff reforms and any other export issues with the US, we are inevitably looking at a period of continued volatility and changes in US shipments. The United States is Parcelhero’s largest single market abroad.
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