Britain’s current account deficit was larger than expected in the final quarter of last year, official figures show. The deficit in the three months to December was £22.4 billion, only marginally lower than the all-time high of £22.8 billion for the previous quarter.
Economists had expected the deficit to narrow to about £14 billion in the final three months of the year. Wrong again.
The current account deficit for the year was £71.1 billion, 4.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, the highest since 1989, the Office for National Statistics said.
Osborne talks about recovery, yet there has been no productivity growth since 2007, exports are down and Britain is running record trade deficits. ■