The UK's deficit on trade in goods and services was £3.9 billion in October, compared with the deficit of £4.4 billion in September (which was previously published as £4.1 billion).
The surplus on trade in services was £2.4 billion in October, the same as in September.
The deficit on trade in goods in October was £6.3 billion, compared with a deficit of £6.7 billion in September (previously published as £6.6 billion). Exports fell by £0.1 billion and imports fell by £0.5 billion.
Following a change in the pattern of trading associated with Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud, identified by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, interpretation of the breakdown between EU and non-EU trade is more difficult.
Originally, most carousel chains only involved EU member states. More recently, some carousel chains have included non-EU countries, for example, Dubai and Switzerland.
However, the import adjustment is applied only to EU imports as the goods return to the UK via the EU - but it is this part of the trading chain that is not recorded.
The deficit with the enlarged EU narrowed to £2.4 billion from the deficit of £2.9 billion in September. Exports rose by £0.1 billion and imports fell by £0.4 billion. There was a rise in exports of intermediate goods. There were falls in exports of capital goods and chemicals.
There was a rise in imports of chemicals but this was more than offset by falls in imports of intermediate goods, capital goods, and semi-manufactures other than chemicals. The deficit with non-EU countries widened to £3.9 billion from the deficit of £3.8 billion in September.