British goods exports fell 6.3 percent in June inside a quarter in which they rose 5.7 percent, and June's fall in goods imports turns into a rise once the price effect comes out

Goods exports fell 6.3 percent in June. Over the quarter that contains it, they rose 5.7 percent.

Both numbers are in the same bulletin, published on Thursday morning, and both exclude non-monetary gold and other precious metals, as every figure in it does. UK goods exports were £33.0bn in June, down £2.2bn on May. Exports to the EU fell £1.3bn, or 7.4 percent, and exports to non-EU countries fell £1.0bn, or 5.4 percent. Across Quarter 2 as a whole, goods exports came to £101.6bn, which is £5.5bn and 5.7 percent above Quarter 1, while goods imports came to £162.3bn, £6.7bn and 4.3 percent above it.

Imports fell and rose in the same month

Goods imports were £54.0bn in June, down £0.4bn, or 0.7 percent. Take the effect of inflation out and the same month reads the other way. On chained volume measures, total goods imports rose £0.6bn, or 1.1 percent, on a £0.8bn rise from non-EU countries that more than offset a £0.2bn fall from the EU. Exports fall on both measures but not by the same amount, £2.2bn in cash and £1.5bn once prices are removed.

The Office for National Statistics puts much of the import fall down to fuel. Imports of refined oil from Belgium and Sweden fell, and so did imports of refined oil from the United States, which the statistics office says was likely because of a fall in oil prices in June, following the agreement between the United States and Iran to extend their ceasefire, announced on 17 June. Machinery and transport equipment went the other way in both directions of trade. Car imports from Germany rose, and imports of office machinery from Mexico rose with them.

Where the export fall sat

On the EU side it was spread. Fuel and chemicals fell £0.3bn each, and machinery and transport equipment and material manufactures fell £0.2bn each, with the release naming lower crude oil exports to Germany and Poland and lower medicinal and pharmaceutical exports to Germany.

The non-EU fall was concentrated in one line. Machinery and transport equipment accounted for £0.7bn of the £1.0bn, which the ONS links to lower car exports to China and lower exports of mechanical power generators to the United Arab Emirates.

The quarterly balances

The total goods and services deficit widened by £0.3bn to £8.0bn in Quarter 2. Underneath that the goods deficit widened by £1.2bn to £60.7bn, and the services surplus widened by about £0.9bn to £52.7bn. Services exports were stable in June and services imports rose £0.1bn, or 0.4 percent.

That last pair carries a caveat the release states plainly. Monthly services figures for June are estimated from forecast Quarter 2 data, and early estimates of trade in services get revised.