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Trade deficit hits five-year low as imports, exports drop again

January 14, 2009
World Trade\Interactive

There was good news and bad news for the U.S. in the trade data released Jan. 13 by the Department of Commerce. The monthly U.S. trade deficit plunged nearly 30 percent in November, the largest single drop since 1992, to $40.4 billion, the lowest level in five years. Imports fell a whopping $25 billion to $183.2 billion, largely due to plummeting oil prices, and are now down 10.6 percent over the past year. Exports have taken a hit as well, however, falling $8.7 billion in November to $142.8 billion, although the year-on-year decline is only 1.7 percent.

On a country-by-country basis, the U.S. trade deficit with China saw the largest decline by value in November, falling a record $4.9 billion (17.5 percent) to $23.1 billion. There were also large percentage drops in the trade deficits with other trading partners, including the European Union (31.25 percent, to $5.6 billion) and major oil suppliers Canada (44.1 percent, to $3.3 billion), Mexico (26.8 percent, to $3.5 billion) and Venezuela and Nigeria (50 percent, to $1.3 billion, each). The U.S. continued to have trade surpluses with Australia ($1.0 billion), Hong Kong ($1.0 billion), Singapore ($0.7 billion) and Egypt ($0.1 billion).