LONDON -- Britain's trade deficit widened in June to its highest level since comparable records began in 1997, following a slump in exports, official figures showed on Thursday.

The deficit on trade in goods and services increased to 4.3 billion pounds ($6.7 billion ) in June, up from 2.7 billion pounds in the previous month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Value of Britain's exports to eurozone and non-EU countries fell by 4.6 percent month on month. The deficit with non-EU nations rose to 5.2 billion pounds in June from 3.9 billion pounds in May.

The sharp rise of trade deficit was mainly caused by a hefty decline in goods exported.

Exports of goods fell to 23.5 billion pounds in June, down by 8.4 percent month on month, while imports of goods fell by 1.2 percent to 33.6 billion pounds, said the ONS.

More specifically, the fall in total exports of goods was driven by lower exports in such commodities as oil, chemicals and cars, according to the ONS. The fall in total imports of goods was driven by lower imports of intermediate goods, oil and silver.

The services trade surplus increased to 5.8 billion pounds in June, up by 0.2 billion pounds from May. Services exports reached 15.8 billion pounds, up by 1.7 percent and imports amounted to 10 billion pounds, an increase of 1.0 percent.

The poor trade performance in June dealt another blow to the British economy. The country's central bank had cut its growth forecast for the country to close to zero percent for this year, saying the greatest threat to recovery came from the eurozone debt crisis. (1 pound = 1.57 U.S. dollars)