Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s export plan published on 17 November 2021, what 10 UK (a) goods and (b) services referred to in that strategy does she project will be at the greatest increased demand in the period 2022-50 as a result of the growth in the global middle classes.

There is a clear positive relationship between the size of the middle class overseas and demand for exports from the UK’s sectors of comparative advantage (as set out on pages 32 and 34 of the Department for International Trade’s Global Trade Outlook published in September 2021). Among the UK’s sectors of specialism, demand for: life sciences; financial services; business services; intellectual property, recreation and media; travel services; aerospace and other transport; construction; and digital services are all projected to grow faster than the global average in the years ahead.