The UK’s current account deficit widened to £91.6bn, or 3.0% of GDP, in 2025 from a revised £84.3bn in 2024, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday.
The current account is the record of transactions between the UK and the rest of the world, covering trade, investment income and transfers. The deficit was the second largest in the G7 in 2025, according to the ONS.
The 2024 comparison has itself moved. The ONS had put the 2024 deficit at £63.2bn, or 2.2% of GDP, a year earlier, so the revised figure is £21.1bn larger and 0.7 percentage points higher as a share of output.
The Pink Book 2026, the ONS’s annual balance of payments account, attributes the changes to methods improvements and updated trade and foreign direct investment survey data. It also reallocated silver, platinum and palladium bullion to a different commodity group.
The ONS said that “data for all periods have been open to revisions”.
The trade balance, including precious metals, widened to a deficit of 1.3% of GDP in 2025 from a revised 0.7% in 2024.
The rate of return on foreign investment in the UK fell to 3.7%, and the rate of return on UK investment abroad fell to 3.4%, as interest rates in the UK and abroad came down.
The financial account, which shows how the deficit was funded, recorded a net inflow of £85.6bn, or 2.8% of GDP, in 2025.
Financial inflows rose by £189.6bn to £574.3bn, while outflows rose by £198.0bn to £488.7bn.
The largest shift in liabilities came from banks. Foreign residents’ foreign currency deposits in UK banks rose to £360.3bn from £252.6bn in 2024, lifting other investment liabilities to £400.9bn from £273.5bn.
Foreign investment in UK equity and investment fund shares switched to net purchases of £34.7bn, from net sales of £5.7bn in 2024.
Foreign net purchases of gilts, or UK government bonds, fell to £28.5bn from an unusually high £102.0bn in 2024. Foreign central banks were net sellers of £9.1bn.
Excluding central banks, foreign residents’ gilt transactions fell to £37.6bn from £78.7bn.
The UK’s net international investment liability position, the gap between what foreigners own in the UK and what UK residents own abroad, was £60.7bn, or 2.0% of GDP, at the end of 2025.
That compares with a revised £40.9bn, or 1.4% of GDP, at the end of 2024, a rise of £19.8bn.
The previous Pink Book had put the end-2024 liability at £145.6bn, or 5.0% of GDP, so the revision lowers it by £104.7bn.
For 2025, the ONS said net financial inflows and larger price rises on UK liabilities than on UK assets widened the liability. A stronger pound against the US dollar cut the sterling value of foreign assets by £175.7bn.
Other changes cut asset values by a further £173.6bn, mostly in direct investment at £153.6bn.
An earlier quarterly estimate for 31 December 2025 had put the net liability at £199.8bn, against the £60.7bn now reported for the same date.
