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The UK's trade deficit widened in May, pushed up by aircraft imports, official data showed on Thursday.

The said the UK's goods trade deficit grew to just over £9.2bn from £8.8bn in April.

The deficit was offset by UK's services sector, which had a £6.8bn trade surplus.

This left an overall deficit for May of £2.4bn, compared with about £2.1bn in April.

April's trade figures were revised up at the beginning of June because of a miscalculation of oil exports, before being revised down again slightly at the end of the month to finish above initial estimates.

In May, the deficit in goods widened by about £400m, mainly due to imports of aircraft, which are high-value and traded relatively infrequently.

Exports of goods to the European Union dipped by 2% to £12.2bn, while imports increased by 1.6% to £17.4bn.

European Union countries are major importers of UK goods, but weak demand in the eurozone has hampered trade.

In total, UK exports of goods increased by £0.1bn to £24.1bn, while imports of goods increased by £0.5bn to £33.3bn.

As part of efforts designed to aid economic recovery in the UK, the government has sought to help exporters with a number of measures, including increases in available export finance.