The UK’s current-account deficit stood at £91.6bn in 2025, according to the latest annual statistical estimates. The deficit widened slightly both in cash terms and as a share of gross domestic product, while the trade balance deficit also increased.
The figures, released on 30 October 2026, describe the position in 2025. They are annual estimates rather than a real-time measure of the UK’s current account in 2026, and their publication does not constitute a policy announcement.
The trade balance deficit widened to 1.3% of GDP in 2025, compared with a revised 0.7% in 2024. That comparison places the trade deficit at a larger share of GDP in the later year, with the earlier figure explicitly carrying revised status.
For the current account, the stated movement was a slight widening. That description applies both to the cash deficit and to its share of GDP. The £91.6bn figure is the cash estimate for 2025; the trade balance percentages describe a separate measure.
Keeping those figures distinct is important when reading the annual update. The current-account deficit is expressed here as a cash total, alongside a description of its movement relative to GDP. The trade balance deficit is given as a percentage of GDP for each of the two years.
The update also includes revisions associated with methodology improvements and updated trade and foreign-direct-investment survey data. The figures therefore represent the latest annual statistical estimates, incorporating changes to methods and the data used in their preparation.
The revised status of the 2024 trade balance figure matters to the year-on-year comparison. The 0.7% figure is the revised estimate against which the 2025 deficit of 1.3% of GDP is presented, rather than an unrevised starting point.
These revisions are part of the statistical update. They should not be read as a new policy decision, nor should the release date be confused with the period measured. The publication took place in October 2026, but the annual current-account total relates to 2025.
The two deficit measures show widening in the annual comparison, although the information gives different levels of detail for each. The current-account movement is described as slight, while the trade balance comparison provides the two GDP shares: a revised 0.7% and 1.3%.
The methodological and survey-data changes also require care in describing the estimates. The revisions are attributed to those updates; they do not, by themselves, provide an explanation for why the underlying current-account or trade balance deficits widened.
The distinction is between changes to the estimated figures and the economic movements those figures describe. The annual update identifies methodology improvements and refreshed survey data as reasons for revisions, while separately setting out the deficit levels and their year-on-year direction.
For readers assessing the headline total, the key qualifications are therefore the reference year and the estimate’s status. The £91.6bn deficit belongs to 2025 and is the latest annual estimate. It is not a measurement of the current-account position at the time of publication.
The annual picture is a slightly wider current-account deficit in both cash and GDP-share terms, together with a trade balance deficit that rose to 1.3% of GDP. Those results sit within a revised statistical series, with the 2024 trade comparison updated to 0.7%.
