April 9 (Reuters) - Britain's goods trade gap with countries outside the European Union narrowed much more than expected in February as exports leapt and imports dived, in a sign sterling weakness may finally be having an impact.
Official data on Thursday from the Office for National Statistics also showed the first annual fall in PPI input prices since August 2007 as the cost of crude oil has plummeted.
The ONS said the non-EU trade gap narrowed to 3.964 billion pounds in February from 5.631 billion pounds in January as exports leapt 12.8 percent and imports fell 5.4 percent.
Analysts had predicted a narrowing to 5.35 billion.
The overall goods trade gap narrowed to 7.315 billion pounds in February from 7.821 billion in January.
In separate ONS data, input prices rose 1.0 percent on the month in March to stand 0.4 percent lower than a year ago.
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)