UK Underlying Trade Deficit Widens to £8.0bn in Quarter 2 2026

The Office for National Statistics reports the UK’s total underlying trade deficit grew by £0.3bn between April and June 2026, reaching £8.0bn.

The UK’s underlying trade deficit hit £8.0bn in the second quarter of 2026, the figures show — up £0.3bn on the previous quarter. The Office for National Statistics posted the data, confirming that imports continued to outpace exports by a wider margin across April, May, and June.

The underlying figure strips out volatile items such as precious metals and non-monetary gold, which can swing the headline number sharply from one quarter to the next. Compared with Quarter 1 2026, when the equivalent deficit stood at £7.7bn — equivalent to 1.0 per cent of GDP — the gap has widened further. And it marks a sharp deterioration from Quarter 4 2025, when the same measure had narrowed to £3.8bn.

That’s a near doubling in two quarters.

For Kent, the numbers carry practical weight. The county sits at the centre of UK freight and cross-Channel trade, with businesses in transport, warehousing, and port-linked logistics directly tied to the flow of goods in and out of the country. A widening trade deficit can point to weaker export demand or stronger import volumes — either way, it shapes the trading conditions that firms operating through Kent’s routes face day to day. Residents may feel the effects indirectly, through prices, business investment decisions, and employment in border-related services. Local enterprise bodies are likely to factor the ONS data into their assessments of regional economic conditions.

The figures come from the ONS UK trade: June 2026 statistical bulletin. A percentage of GDP figure for Quarter 2 2026 had not been confirmed at the time of publication.