The UK’s current account deficit shrank to £16.8bn in the second quarter of this year, down from £24bn, marking a two-year low as a share of the country’s total output.

The deficit amounted to 3.6 per cent of GDP in the second quarter, down from 5.2 per cent. Economists had expected the gap to be larger, at around £22bn.

The Office for National Statistics, which compiled the data, said:

The narrowing of the current account deficit was mainly due to a narrowing in the deficit on the trade account and a small narrowing in the deficit on the primary income account, slightly offset by a small widening in the deficit on the secondary income account.

It adds:

The UK has run a combined current and capital account deficit in every year since 1983, and every quarter since Quarter 3 1998.

The Treasury points out:

As a share of GDP, this is the smallest current account deficit since 2013 Q2 and the smallest trade deficit since 1998 Q1.

(You can read the ONS’s full release here.)

The UK has been in a net deficit for every year since 1983. That has not changed