Posted - Filed under International Trade, Release Observations.

Trade Deficit

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The U.S. Balance of Trade widened to a $38.7bn (annualized, seasonally-adjusted) level in December, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported today. This worsening of $4.1bn almost completely reverses an improvement of $4.5bn in October (itself revised down from a previously reported $4.9bn).

Total Exports of Goods & Services dropped by $3.5bn while total Imports rose by $0.6bn. (See table below.)

The trade deficit is now almost unchanged over the past twelve months.

Significant moves occurred in:

Industrial Supplies (including Crude and Petroleum products): Exports fell by $1.1bn, imports rose by $0.5bn.

Automotive Vehicle exports and imports both fell –  by $0.8bn and $0.9bn respectively.

Capital Goods exports fell sharply by $1.1bn.

Consumer Goods exports fell by $0.7bn and imports rose by $0.7bn.

Numbers and charts for these and other sectors are available on our updated International Trade page.

U.S. Interational Trade: Goods & Services (BoP).
Seasonally Adjusted.
Expenditure Group Level ($mill.) Monthly Change ($mill.) Mthly Chg (%) Yr/Yr Change ($mill.) Yr/Yr Chg (%)
Dec.
2013
Oct.
2013
Nov.
2013
Dec.
2013
Dec.
2013
Oct.
2013
Nov.
2013
Dec.
2013
Dec.
2013
Trade Balance -38,701 3,641 4,515 -4,143 12.0 3,577 11,864 -394 1.0
Exports 191,287 3,824 1,463 -3,509 -1.8 10,678 9,576 2,601 1.4
Imports 229,988 183 -3,052 634 0.3 7,102 -2,287 2,994 1.3

 

Changes to Trade Balance

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The scale and disposition of the changes across sectors are shown in the chart on left.

 

All categories remain in deficit, with the exception of Services and the sole Goods sector – Foods, Feeds & Beverages (second bar chart).

Note that the Monthly levels are at an annualized rate.  A figure of -$30.5bn for Consumer Goods means that the U.S. is a net importer of such goods to the tune of around $1000 per year for every adult and child.

Contributions to Trade Balance

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