HOPES for the growth of UK economy to bounce back have received a boost after official figures revealed a dramatic narrowing of the UK's trade deficit.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the trade gap was estimated to have shrunk to £1.2 billion in April, down significantly on the £3.1bn recorded for March and far better than expected by most economists.
Experts said the figures suggested trade could help lift economic growth in the three months to the end of June - a marked reversal on the impact it had on first quarter figures.
In the first three months of 2015, trade acted as the biggest drag on the headline gross domestic product (GDP) figure since the third quarter of 2013, leaving growth at 0.3 per cent, which was half the rate seen in the previous three months.
Net trade knocked 0.9 percentage points off the quarterly rate of GDP between January and March, which had acted as a blow to government aims to rebalance the economy away from a consumer-led recovery.
But Vicky Redwood, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said April's trade data should provoke a "sigh of relief".
She added: "April's trade figures at least set the second quarter off to a good start.
"Even if the trade deficit widens again in May, there is a decent chance that net trade boosts overall GDP growth in the second quarter."
