Chart 4

　　Number of Chinese firms listing on London’s Alternative Investment Market

　　Source: London Stock Exchange

　　Trade

　　The UK has a sizeable trade deficit in goods with China, importing £15 billion worth of goods in 2006 (the latest year for which official data are available).

　　Official data on trade between London and China does not include trade in services, which London’s economy is highly concentrated in. UK trade data can provide a proxy of the trade in services that occurs between London and China.

　　The UK exported £1.5 billion of services to China in 2006 and ran a services trade surplus of £676 million with the country. Despite still not being one of the largest markets for UK exports (ranked 15th for exports of services in 2006 and 20th for exports of goods) service exports in particular to China have grown sharply over recent years, as shown by Chart 5.

　　Chart 5

　　Fastest growing markets for UK exports of services since 2000

　　Source: ONS Pink Book

　　Whilst the majority of service exports are in the form of travel and transport from China to the UK and London data shows that financial and business services, in which London specialises, are the second largest group of exports to the country – these exports from the UK to China amounting to £352 million in 2006. Work by Oxford Economics suggests at least a quarter of this total coming from London.