The US trade deficit narrowed slightly to USD 54.0 billion in July 2019 from a revised USD 55.5 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 53.5 billion. Exports rose 0.6 percent while imports fell 0.1 percent. Balance of Trade in the United States averaged -14936.33 USD Million from 1950 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 1946 USD Million in June of 1975 and a record low of -67823 USD Million in August of 2006.

Balance of Trade in the United States is expected to be -56000.00 USD Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in the United States to stand at -43000.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United States Balance of Trade is projected to trend around -63000.00 USD Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.

United States Balance of Trade
width
height
 Preview
Forecast Data Chart
Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices.

The Trading Economics Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct access to our data. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds.

API Features Documentation Interested? Click here to contact us

Calendar GMT Actual Previous Consensus TEForecast
2019-06-06 12:30 PM Balance of Trade Apr $-50.8B $-51.9B $-50.7B $-51.2B
2019-07-03 12:30 PM Balance of Trade May $-55.5B $-51.2B $-54B $-54.3B
2019-08-02 12:30 PM Balance of Trade Jun $-55.2B $-55.3B $-54.6B $-54.7B
2019-09-04 12:30 PM Balance of Trade Jul $-54B $-55.5B $-53.5B $-53.4B
2019-10-04 12:30 PM Balance of Trade Aug $-54B
2019-11-05 12:30 PM Balance of Trade Sep $ -52.5B
2019-12-05 01:30 PM Balance of Trade Oct



US Trade Deficit Larger than Expected

The US trade deficit narrowed slightly to USD 54.0 billion in July 2019 from a revised USD 55.5 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 53.5 billion. Exports rose 0.6 percent while imports fell 0.1 percent.

Exports from the US rose USD 1.2 billion from the previous month to USD 207.4 billion in July. Goods exports increased USD 1.2 billion to USD 138.2 billion, boosted by sales of consumer goods (up USD 1.5 billion), mainly pharmaceutical preparations; capital goods (up USD 0.8 billion); and automotive vehicles, parts, and engines (up USD 0.6 billion). In contrast, industrial supplies and materials exports decreased USD 1.7 billion on the back of crude oil, metallurgical grade coal, fuel oil, and other petroleum products. Exports of services, including transport and charges for the use of intellectual property, dropped USD 0.1 billion to USD 69.2 billion in July.

On a non seasonally adjusted basis, goods exports increased to Mexico (7.1 percent) and Japan (5.9 percent), but fell to China (-3.3 percent), the EU (-5.7 percent), Canada (-6.1 percent), and Brazil (-7.9 percent).

Imports to the US declined USD 0.4 billion to USD 261.4 billion. Goods imports fell USD 0.4 billion to USD 211.8 billion due to lower purchases of capital goods (down USD 1.5 billion) led by computers. Meanwhile, industrial supplies and materials imports advanced USD 0.9 billion due to other petroleum products. Imports of services, such as insurance services and other business services, were up USD 0.1 billion to USD 49.6 billion in July.

On a non seasonally adjusted basis, goods imports decreased from Canada (-3.2 percent) and Mexico (-1.3 percent), but were up from China (6.4 percent), the EU (11.0 percent), Japan (8.3 percent), and Brazil (17.5 percent).

The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China increased 9.4 percent to USD 32.8 billion in July from USD 30.0 billion in June; while that with the EU widened to a record high of USD 20.1 billion from USD 14.0 billion, with the shortfall with Germany the largest since August 2015. Also, the trade deficit rose with Canada (USD 3.5 billion from USD 2.9 billion) and Japan (USD 6.3 billion from USD 5.7 billion), but narrowed with Mexico (USD 8.0 billion from USD 9.9 billion).


US Census Bureau | Joana Ferreira | joana.ferreira@tradingeconomics.com
9/4/2019 12:53:11 PM


News

US Trade Deficit Little-Changed in June
The US trade deficit narrowed slightly to USD 55.2 billion in June 2019 from a revised USD 55.3 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 54.6 billion.
Published on 2019-08-02

US Trade Deficit Largest in 5 Months
The US trade deficit widened to USD 55.5 billion in May 2019 from a revised USD 51.2 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 54.0 billion. That was the largest trade gap since December.
Published on 2019-07-03

US Trade Deficit Narrows in April
The US trade deficit narrowed to USD 50.8 billion in April 2019 from a revised USD 51.9 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 50.7 billion. The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China increased 29.7 percent to USD 26.9 billion.
Published on 2019-06-06

US Trade Surplus Widens in March
The US trade deficit widened to USD 50.0 billion in March 2019 from an eight-month low of USD 49.3 billion in the previous month and compared to market expectations of USD 50.2 billion.
Published on 2019-05-09



United States Trade Last Previous Highest Lowest Unit
Balance of Trade -53989.00 -55508.00 1946.00 -67823.00 USD Million [+]
Current Account -130400.00 -143927.00 9957.00 -215769.00 USD Million [+]
Current Account to GDP -2.40 -2.30 0.20 -6.00 percent [+]
Imports 261391.00 261753.00 266816.00 577.00 USD Million [+]
Exports 207401.00 206245.00 213341.00 772.00 USD Million [+]
External Debt 20006050.00 19765887.00 20006050.00 6570168.00 USD Million [+]
Terms of Trade 106.25 105.85 168.28 91.82 Index Points [+]
Capital Flows 43800.00 21000.00 272938.00 -194622.00 USD Million [+]
Foreign Direct Investment 52432.00 53720.00 55831.00 -9988.00 USD Million [+]
Net Long Term Tic Flows 99054.00 4584.00 157830.00 -72882.00 USD Million [+]
Gold Reserves 8133.46 8133.50 8149.05 8133.46 Tonnes [+]
Crude Oil Production 12082.00 12108.00 12162.00 3971.00 BBL/D/1K [+]
Tourism Revenues 20875.00 21387.00 21891.00 6496.00 USD Million [+]
Tourist Arrivals 7019871.00 6227283.00 8364941.00 2094287.00 [+]
Terrorism Index 6.07 5.43 7.39 3.70 [+]
Weapons Sales 10508.00 12485.00 15725.00 1742.00 USD Million [+]
Goods Trade Balance -72456.00 -74177.00 1492.20 -79790.00 USD Million [+]

Exports by Country  |   Exports by Category  |   Imports by Country  |   Imports by Category



United States Balance of Trade

The United States has been running consistent trade deficits since 1976 due to high imports of oil and consumer products. In 2018, the biggest trade deficits were recorded with China, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Vietnam and Italy and the biggest trade surpluses with Hong Kong, Netherlands, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Brazil and Panama. China is the top trading partner, accounting for 16 percent of total trade, followed by Canada (15 percent) and Mexico (15 percent). This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Balance of Trade - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. United States Balance of Trade - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on September of 2019.

Actual Previous Highest Lowest Dates Unit Frequency
-53989.00 -55508.00 1946.00 -67823.00 1950 - 2019 USD Million Monthly
SA




Country Last Previous
Argentina 951.00 Jul/19
Australia 7268.00 Jul/19
Brazil 3280.00 Aug/19
Canada -1124.40 Jul/19
China 348.30 Aug/19
Euro Area 24789.70 Jul/19
France -4607.00 Jul/19
Germany 21449.00 Jul/19
India -13450.00 Aug/19
Indonesia 85.10 Aug/19
Italy 5728.50 Jun/19
Japan -249.59 Jul/19
Mexico -1117.00 Jul/19
Netherlands 4127.00 Jul/19
Russia 11224.00 Jul/19
Saudi Arabia 131636.00 Mar/19
Singapore 3787.85 Aug/19
South Africa -2880.82 Jul/19
South Korea 1723.00 Aug/19
Spain -1532700.00 Jun/19
Switzerland 2671.16 Jul/19
Turkey -3191.93 Jul/19
United Kingdom -219.00 Jul/19
United States -53989.00 Jul/19


Related
Latest