The UK’s trade balance - the difference between the level of its imports and exports - is improving, according to a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.

Speaking before the Treasury Select Committee one of the MPC’s newest members, Professor Silvana Tenreyro, said that while in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum the trade deficit had increased, the gap between imports and exports was now closing.

Recent revisions to the UK's balance of payments data, as highlighted by the Telegraph, were a “revision to the whole curve not to the slope”, Prof Tenreyro argued.

“The trade balance has been closing”, after an initial increase in import levels, and exports have made “a positive contribution to growth”, the economist said.

Explaining why the expected rise in exports had been delayed after the EU referendum, Prof Tenreyro said that when faced with a sharp fall in currency, as witnessed with sterling after the vote, importers see a “window of opportunity where prices are low” and therefore bring forward purchases. The resultant increased deficit in the UK trade account is now being corrected.