U.S. TRADE DEFICIT

Trade Deficit Up Sharply in December, Sees Smaller Rise for 2014

Friday, February 06, 2015

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

Trade statistics released Feb. 5 by the Department of Commerce show that the U.S. trade deficit in goods and services jumped 17.1 percent in December and 6.0 percent for all of 2014. In December, the deficit grew to $46.6 billion as exports fell 0.8 percent to $194.9 billion but imports jumped 2.2 percent to $241.4 billion. For 2014, the deficit totaled $505 billion as exports rose 2.9 percent to a record $2.35 trillion while imports grew 3.4 percent to $2.85 trillion.
Highlights of the statistics for December include the following.
- the goods deficit rose 11.7 percent to $66.0 billion while the services surplus saw a 0.5 percent gain to $19.5 billion
- goods deficits were higher with China (up 1.7 percent to $30.4 billion), Mexico (up 27.3 percent to $5.6 billion), Canada (up 136 percent to $3.3 billion) and India (up 23.5 percent to $2.1 billion)
- goods deficits were lower with Germany (down 11.1 percent to $5.6 billion), Japan (down 3.6 percent to $5.4 billion) and Korea (down 6.9 percent to $2.7 billion)
- the goods deficit with the European Union was unchanged at $12.7 billion
- the U.S. ran goods trade surpluses with South and Central America ($2.6 billion), Brazil ($0.4 billion) and the United Kingdom ($0.1 billion)
Highlights of the statistics for all of 2014 include the following.
- the goods deficit increased 5.0 percent to $736.8 billion and the services surplus gained 2.9 percent to $231.8 billion
- the U.S. ran trade deficits with China ($342.6 billion), the European Union ($141.1 billion), Germany ($73.7 billion), Japan ($67.0 billion), Mexico ($53.8 billion), Canada ($34.0 billion), Italy ($25.1 billion), Korea ($25.1 billion), India ($23.6 billion) and Venezuela ($18.9 billion)
- the U.S. ran trade surpluses with Hong Kong ($35.1 billion), South and Central America ($34.4 billion), Australia ($16.0 billion) and Singapore ($14.1 billion)