Re your report (UK will be 15 years late in hitting £1tn annual export target, figures show, 22 January), we already knew that exports were previously forecast to hit £1tn by 2035 when we launched our export strategy. Indeed, that is precisely why we launched it – to speed up our “race to a trillion”, with an ambitious goal to hit that target by 2030.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s projection of £739bn of exports for 2022, used in your article, is already out of date. In the year to November, total exports of goods and services reached £741bn. The total for the whole year is likely to be around £800bn.
Getting to £1tn in 2030 from £800bn in 2022 implies an annual growth rate of 2.8% a year. The growth rate from 2012 to 2022 was 4% a year, so the growth rate needed to get to £1tn by 2030 is perfectly achievable, unremarkable even. Indeed, the independent forecaster Oxford Economics has estimated that UK exports of goods and services will reach £1tn in 2030.
The Department for International Trade is already on track, with a 24% current-prices rise in exports in the 12 months to November last year. And we will continue promoting exports, removing barriers and securing high-quality trade deals so more of our great British goods and services are sold around the world.
Andrew Bowie MP
Minister for exports
