Thread by @lasancmt

Three months later than usual @ONS have published UK National Accounts for 2018.

This series of tweets will draw attention to the financial mess #Brexit is creating for the United Kingdom.

We hear about UK national debt a lot, but not much on trade and UK balance of payments.

In their quarterly reports @ons have been warning us that UK trade deficit with EU was actually improving while trade with non-EU Rest of the World (ROW) was heading the opposite direction, despite #Brexiteers telling us that this is where our future lies!

@ONS So let's see what bad news #Brexit uncertainty has brought to our National Accounts for the last year 2018 just out:

"The UK trade deficit widened to 1.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, from 1.2% in 2017, its highest since 2010"

@ONS As Figure 3 below shows, this was due mainly to the UK’s trade surplus with non-European Union (non-EU) countries ***narrowing*** to 1.3% of GDP (from 1.9% in 2017) – its narrowest since 2012. The UK’s trade deficit with EU countries remained unchanged in 2018 at 3.1% of GDP.

@ONS In nominal terms, the total trade deficit (including goods and services) widened by £12.6 billion to £37.7 billion in 2018. Of that £12.6 billion widening, £10.7 billion was because of the ***narrowing*** of the trade surplus with non-EU countries

@ONS , of which £5.3 billion was because of the widening of the trade deficit with European countries not in the EU (Other Europe), as Figure 4 shows.

So is it easier to trade with EU countries?

@ONS As % of GDP, the UK’s trade deficit with European countries not in the EU in 2018 was 0.6% of GDP, its widest since 2012 (when it was 0.9%). The main driver was trade with Russia, in which there was a widening in the trade deficit from £0.8 billion in 2017 to £3.9 billion in 2018

@ONS Here's another @ONS whopper: Do you remember #Brexit shouters used to say trade with non-EU is bigger than with EU countries? Well not according to our own Office of National Statistics. They make it exactly fifty-fifty. And trade with just Holland and Ireland is bigger than USA

@ONS And how does the UK finance this current account deficit?
This is where you have to remember our pro Brexit @Conservatives leaders shouting about UK having the biggest and bestest Foreign Direct Investments of the whole of the EU.

But what does @ONS tell us in the Pink Book 2019

@ONS @Conservatives @ONS: "Net inward investment flows into the UK decreased ***substantially**** from 23.7% in 2017 to 8.3% in 2018.

This was due mainly to a decrease in other investments from 10.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 to 0.1% of GDP in 2018"

Why is this not news before a #GE?

@ONS @Conservatives And this is not from the Pink Book but the latest @ONS quarterly GDP report.

Look how #Brexit is giving UK manufacturing a real hammering!

@threadreaderapp unroll please