Britain's trade deficit rises to £4.6bn

London: Britain’s trade deficit hit a new monthly record of £4.6 billion today after exports to countries outside the European Union slumped 19% in January.

The gap in trade on goods and services compared with £3.1bn in December and is far higher than City expectations of around £3.3bn.

Further bad news for the manufacturing sector came from production figures showing output rose by 0.2% between December and January. That was weaker than expected as firms faced up to the impact of the weak US dollar on exports.