New Trade Figures Highlight Volitility Of Pound

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 11th Jun 2003

Responding to the new UK Trade figures showing a widening trade deficit widening, Vince Cable MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow DTI Secretary, said it was clear that British business is still paying the price of prolonged periods of currency instability.

Dr. Cable said: "Outside the Euro, Britain's exporters have to operate at the mercy of a volatile currency."

"The UK has been enormously disadvantaged, relative to its EU counterparts, by the uncompetitive and volatile British currency in recent years."

"The Treasury's assessment of the 5 tests recognises that exclusion from the Euro is compromising Britain's trading position. So if we are not joining the Euro yet, what is Labour going to do address the deficit?"

ENDS

Notes:

The Office of National Statistics today released UK Trade figures showing:

· The latest estimate of trends suggests that the UK Trade Deficit is widening, currently standing at £5.4 billion for the three months ended April 2003;

· The deficit with the EU countries in April was £1.7 billion compared with £1.0 billion in March;

· In the three months ended April, trade with EMU members showed a deficit of £3.7 billion;

Copies of the report are available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/trd0603.pdf