Published:
UK trade in services by partner country: April to June 2026
ONS publishes quarterly estimates of UK services exports and imports by partner country and region, including EU/non-EU splits, by service type, and by account in both chain volume and current price terms.
The ONS has released quarterly UK trade in services data covering April to June 2026, with a focus on exports and imports by partner country and wider geographical groupings including an EU and non-EU breakdown. The publication includes service-type detail on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, alongside totals for all countries.
Beyond the geographic split, the dataset is also presented by trade account, with measures available on a chain volume measure (CVM) basis and in current prices (CP). That matters for interpreting whether any movement in the headline services totals reflects underlying changes in volumes or shifts in the nominal value of cross-border transactions.
For FX, the key relevance is that services trade is a meaningful component of the broader external balance narrative: it influences expectations for UK demand, revenue from abroad and, indirectly, the inflation backdrop through how strong or weak foreign demand is translating into domestic nominal outcomes. It also helps traders contextualise whether UK services activity is concentrated in particular partner regions.
Next, the market will typically look for the direction and magnitude of changes in exports versus imports and whether any swings are concentrated in specific service categories or partner regions, since that can change the perceived durability of the UK’s external position.
Why this matters for FX
Trade in services by partner country feeds directly into the UK’s external demand picture and helps gauge how resilient export earnings are, as well as the scale of import demand from different regions. By presenting services flows in both chain volume (real activity) and current price terms (nominal valuation), the release supports a clearer read on whether changes are volume- or price-driven—an important input into the inflation and growth context FX traders consider for GBP.