The trade gap grows ever larger: The U.S. trade deficit widened to $59.8 billion for the month of December, reaching its the highest level since October 2008, according to a Census Bureau report that came out yesterday. For the full year, the U.S. trade gap grew to $621 billion.
In 2018, the goods and services deficit increased $68.8 billion, or 12.5 percent, from 2017. When the service sector is excluded, focusing just on goods, the gap was even greater, rising to a record $891.3 billion.
The widening gap is more attributable to imports than exports. Imports rose 2.1 percent in December to $264.89 billion, while exports fell 1.9 percent to $205.12 billion.
No comments:
Post a Comment