Thank goodness UK net exports were up in the final quarter of 2016

[WTFH]

Or could it be that some people know that the fundamentals of the British economy are too weak to take a large shock,

The problem with that argument is that in Q3 the net figures were absolutely chronic (for some unknown reason), so it was quite a big recovery to get them back to a similar level to Q4 2015.

[darmstadt]

And I didn't even have to do any overtime: https://www.ft.com/content/f3ef3ef3-...5-d621f9f6114f

It’s official: Germany was the fastest growing major economy last year.

Germany has wrestled the crown off Britain this morning, with new figures confirming that German GDP rose by 1.9% in 2016.

That beats Britain, which only grew by 1.8% over the same period (as we learned yesterday), and means Westminster politicians won’t be able to crow about beating the rest of the G7 last year.

It also means Germany outpaced the US (which expanded by 1.6% last year, according to preliminary data).

[sasguru]

The problem with that argument is that in Q3 the net figures were absolutely chronic (for some unknown reason), so it was quite a big recovery to get them back to a similar level to Q4 2015.

Doesn't really matter does it?
Do any of these figures set Britain on a trajectory of getting a trade surplus or is it just insignificant variation, bumping around at the bottom?
For something significant you'd have to see a consistent rise month after month, year after year - what we see instead is minor rises and falls.
So now we're back to December 2015? Whoopety doo dah..

[sasguru]

Here is a list of countries by merchandise (i.e. goods) exports.
For our population size its not terribly inspiring.
Netherlands and even Italy export more with a much smaller population.
And about half of our goods exports go to the EU


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ies_by_exports

[The Spartan]

Here is a list of countries by merchandise (i.e. goods) exports.
For our population size its not terribly inspiring.
Netherlands and even Italy export more with a much smaller population.
And about half of our goods exports go to the EU


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ies_by_exports

Yes we know over 50% of our exports go to the EU but the UK's trade deficit is at an all time high so all we're doing is pouring money into their economy. It's easy to be swayed by the figure

UK exports to the EU 52%
EU exports to the UK 7%

This though doesn't show the fact that a fair few of the countries in the EU sell more to us than we do to them.