As part of the announcement, the government said it will provide more support to UK Trade & Industry to help UK businesses planning to export and has committed additional funding for exporters.

He said that ‘the combined goods exports to Brazil, India and China have risen faster than those of our competitors’.

Exports of goods to countries outside the EU have risen by 23% since 2010 and exports of goods to the EU by 8% – but export performance needs to improve to support a balanced recovery.

The chancellor said the UK needed to support exporters with direct action and announced that ‘we’re going to start with the finance we provide our exporters. We will double the amount of lending available to £3bn’.

In a surprise announcement, he said that the ‘interest rates we charge on that money will be cut by a third, instead of having the least competitive export finance in Europe, this will make it the most competitive in Europe'.

As part of the measures announced in the Budget, the chancellor said there would be an overhaul of UK Export Finance’s (UKEF) direct lending programme, which will be doubled to £3bn and the interest rates on borrowing the money would be cut to the lowest permitted levels based on EU state aid rules.

The government has also said that it will ‘become much more proactive in support of UK business who want to expand globally, including supporting the UK-based supply chains of exporters and intangible exports for the first time by expanding the remit of UKEF and changing its underpinning legislation’.

The plans to overhaul UKEF will be supported with a marketing campaign to build awareness of products and services.

UK Export Finance has given around £11.8bn in financial support to British businesses since 2009-10 to 66,000 businesses.