Posted on 01/07/2020 10:05:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The numbers: The trade deficit fell sharply in November for the second month in a row and sank to the lowest level in three years, reflecting a decline in Chinese imports and the reemergence of the U.S. as an energy superpower.
The trade gap dropped 8.2% to $43.1 billion in November, the government said Tuesday, basically matching the MarketWatch forecast. It’s the smallest deficit since October 2016.
Most of the decline recently has been tied to a shrinking deficit with China, whose imports have fallen in the face off stiff U.S. tariffs. Surging U.S. oil exports were another contributor.
If the gap remains around the same size in December, the U.S. could post the first annual decline in its trade deficit in 2019 in six years.
What happened: Exports rose 0.7% to $208.6 billion in November. The U.S. exported more aircraft engines, autos and equipment for oil drilling and exploration.
Imports slipped 1% to $251.7 billion. The U.S. imported fewer computers, cell phones, drugs and aircraft, offsetting a big increase in auto imports.
The deficit in goods with China fell another $2.2 billion in November to $25.6 billion.
The gap with China has tumbled $61.3 billion to $319.8 billion in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to the prior year.
What’s unclear is whether the gap will continue to shrink or by how much. Most of the decline in the past several months may reflect short-term disruptions caused by the trade war as companies sought to time orders around new tariffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
$60 billion less for china. That may be equal to one or two aircraft carriers.
Great news, except for the Free Traitors among us. They LOVE that cheap Chinese crap.
That's not how it works.
In theory the $60B in goods we would have imported probably cost them at least $55B to produce so they only netted $5B.
And it probably didn't go to the government.
In fact, if they were dumping goods here, as many often claim, the cost would be more than $60B and they could have built more carriers if we hadn't imported anything at all.
Can’t be. They said POTUS Trump was making the Trade Deficit higher.
Adjusted for inflation, this is the lowest since President Clinton’s administration and its massive trade-deficit run-up, except for a brief period during the Great Recession.
As a portion of the GDP, you get forget about the “except for” part of that.
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