Trade Balance Improves in October

Posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thank you for using rssforward.com! This service has been made possible by all our customers. In order to provide a sustainable, best of the breed RSS to Email experience, we've chosen to keep this as a paid subscription service. If you are satisfied with your free trial, please sign-up today. Subscriptions without a plan would soon be removed. Thank you!

Marketwatch reports:

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in October as exports were powered by the weaker dollar and imports slowed to a crawl.

The nation's trade deficit shrank 7.6% in October to $32.9 billion from $35.7 billion in September, the Commerce Department said. The September trade gap had been reported at $36.5 billion.

The narrowing of the deficit was unexpected. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch had expected the deficit to widen to $37 billion.

The lower deficit also eases fears that the trade balance would deteriorate sharply after the deficit widened sharply last month.

During this recession there has been a sharp drop in international trade that led to a substantial improvement in the U.S. trade deficit.

Good news in the short run, though the longer trend reversal since the economic recovery (i.e. going back to the "norm" of a strong imbalance of imports) remains.