BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 85

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 in the last 12 months, 22.9% reported exporting less in May 2023 compared to May 2022, and 15.2% reported exporting more.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 85

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 4: The challenges that were most commonly reported to have increased in May 2023 were changes in transportation costs, changes in exchange rates and additional paperwork– this was the case for both exporting and importing. However, an estimated 65.6% of exporters and 59.0% of importers reported that they did not experience an increase in exporting/importing challenges in May 2023 compared with April 2023.

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 85

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

Figure 5: In Wave 85, 37.7% of applicable 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 (59.2%). The end of the EU transition period combined with the COVID-19 pandemic was reported as the main cause of challenges for a further 21.1% of exporters and 16.2% of importers.  

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 85