BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 73

Exporting and Importing Challenges

The BICS asks businesses that are currently trading about how current conditions, including the end of the EU transition period, have impacted on their exporting and importing – the specific questions asked are shown below.

Question: How did your business's exporting compare with this calendar month last year?

• exported/imported more
• exporting/importing stayed the same
• exported/imported less
• business was unable to export / import
• not sure

Figure 3: Of businesses currently trading that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 22.8% reported exporting less in December 2022 compared to December 2021, and 16.2% reported exporting more.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 73

Currently trading businesses who had exported in the last 12 months were asked where they exported goods or services to in the last 3 months.

Figure 4: Of currently trading businesses that have exported/imported in the last 12 months, 70.8% of exporters and 53.4% of importers reported exporting/importing to/from both EU and non-EU destinations in the last 3 months.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 73

Currently trading businesses that have exported or imported in the last 12 months, and reported on how exporting compared to the previous year, were asked if they had experienced an increase in exporting/importing challenges over the last month.

Figure 5: The challenges that were most commonly reported to have increased in Wave 73 were additional paperwork, changes in transportation costs and changes in exchange rates – this was the case for both exporting and importing. However, an estimated 50.6% of exporters and 51.2% of importers reported that they did not experience an increase in exporting/importing challenges in December 2022 compared with November 2022.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 73

Businesses that reported challenges to exporting/importing were asked about the main cause of these exporting/importing challenges.

Figure 6: In Wave 73, 43.8% of exporters reported that the end of the EU transition period was the main cause of their exporting challenges.  This was also the most frequently reported cause of importing challenges (42.9%). The end of the EU transition period combined with the COVID-19 pandemic was reported as the main cause of challenges for a further 32.3% of exporters and 36.1% of importers.  

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 73