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LONDON: UK exports to the UAE reached £5.24 billion ($6.9 billion) in the first eight months of 2017, an increase of 30 percent on the same period last year, according to official figures.
The UAE market accounted for 2.3 percent of the UK’s total exports over the period, the statistics released Tuesday show.
The UAE was the UK’s 11th top trading partner in August, while ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ — the only other Gulf state in the top 25 — ranked 22nd.
The UK exported goods worth £2.73 billion to ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ in the first eight months of 2017, marking a decline of 9.3 percent compared to the previous year.
The growth in exports to the UAE is a bright spot in an increasingly gloomy picture for UK trade, as the country grapples with an ever-widening deficit and a slump in exports to non-EU countries.
The UK’s three-month trade deficit reached £13.2 billion at the end of August, widening from £7.04 billion recorded in May, according to statistics released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday.
If erratic commodities such as gold are not included, the deficit widened to £10.8 billion.
While exports to non-EU countries decreased by 8.8 percent or £4 billion between the three months to May and the three months to August, exports to the EU increased by 4.1 percent, according to ONS data.
That will be a concern to those hoping that the UK might be able to lessen its reliance on the EU after it leaves the bloc. The fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote was also expected to boost the appeal of UK exports.
While the US is the UK’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 13.6 percent of exports this year to date, according to HMRC data, the majority of the country’s top 10 trading partners are within the EU.