North East exports rise 10% over past year

Jun 11 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

EXPORTS from North East companies in the first three months of this year are up 10% on a year ago in line with the whole of the UK.

The region saw a rise in value of sales to other countries to £2.5m from £2.3m a year ago although it was down by around 8% on the last three months of 2009.

But over the 12 months to the end of March the total value of UK exports fell by 5% to £231bn while the North East saw only a 1% fall to £9.9bn.

Wales saw a 16.8% fall and Northern Ireland a plunge of 17.4% with only a Scottish rise of 3.5% dragging up the UK average. Jonathan Walker, policy adviser at the NECC, said: “Perhaps disappointingly, the gains made in the last quarter of 2009 in the North East have not continued into the beginning of this year.

“The end of 2009 was a surprisingly good period for North East exports, with values rising by 17% on the previous quarter.

“North East exports are in a healthier position than they were in the same quarter last year, but the sector isn’t out of the woods yet.

“What is clear is that a rebalancing of the economy in favour of exports is yet to get under way.

“This simply emphasises the importance of continued Government support for new and existing exporters, even in the face of large scale public sector cuts.”

The NECC is working with The Journal and backed by UKTI on the Go Global campaign to encourage more companies to sell abroad.

Although the North East exports are still the smallest value of any region in the country, this is largely down to us having the smallest proportion of companies selling overseas.

But the value of exports per North East company stands at £2.46m, nearly double the national average of £1.27m.

The UK saw a 6.3% fall in the value of imports to £313.5m. The largest change in imports among English regions was the North East which saw a 16.6% fall to £7.27m. No region saw a rise.