The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the goods and services trade deficit was $57.6 billion in February, up $0.9 billion from $56.7 billion in January. The bureau revised January slightly wider, from $56.6 billion as originally reported.
Exports, Imports, and Balance
- February exports were $204.4 billion, $3.5 billion more than January exports.
- February imports were $262.0 billion, $4.4 billion more than January imports.
- The February increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $0.3 billion to $77.0 billion and a decrease in the services surplus of $0.6 billion to $19.4 billion.
- Year-to-date, the goods and services deficit increased $21.1 billion, or 22.7 percent, from the same period in 2017.
- Year-to-date, exports increased $22.4 billion or 5.9 percent. Imports increased $43.6 billion or 9.1 percent.
By Country
- The deficit with Mexico increased $1.0 billion to $6.6 billion in February. Exports decreased less than $0.1 billion to $21.9 billion and imports increased $0.9 billion to $28.5 billion.
- The deficit with Germany increased $0.4 billion to $6.7 billion in February. Exports decreased $0.2 billion to $4.7 billion and imports increased $0.2 billion to $11.3 billion.
- The deficit with Canada decreased $1.2 billion to $0.4 billion in February. Exports increased $1.2 billion to $26.1 billion and imports increased less than $0.1 billion to $26.4 billion.
- The deficit with China decreased $0.8 billion to $34.7 billion in February. Exports increased $0.2 billion to $10.7 billion and imports decreased $0.6 billion to $45.4 billion.
Expect more screams from Trump.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Yeah yeah yeah. Someday the sky will fall on our heads too. But if we follow the disastrous prescriptions of you and your Wall Street friends, everything will be OK. Got it.
Germany will eventually pay the piper heavily – When Italy leaves the Eurozone and defaults
Mish. It is funny your brought up trade with both Germany and China.
Germany actually has a trade SURPLUS with China.
Just how DID THEY DO THAT? Is Germany just one happy free trade country with no tariffs, regulations and not caring about their industry, jobs and economy?
Here is a hint. They religiously protect their manufacturing base.
Now that would be a pretty good article for you.
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/balance-of-trade
And higher interest rates (stronger dollar) will certainly not help.
LOL…What happened to that 5% first quarter GDP growth? We’ll be lucky now to get 2%.
Not to worry, we are simply spending ourselves rich.