{"id":34248,"date":"2023-05-04T13:29:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-trade-deficit-narrows\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:49:43","slug":"us-trade-deficit-narrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-trade-deficit-narrows\/","title":{"rendered":"US trade deficit narrows sharply in March as exports rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211;     The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as exports increased, which could position trade to continue contributing to economic growth in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The trade deficit contracted 9.1% to $64.2 billion, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Data for February was revised to show the trade gap widening to $70.6 billion instead of $70.5 billion as previously reported. <\/p>\n<p>Exports increased 2.1% to $256.2 billion. Goods exports shot up 3.1% to $174.3 billion. Crude oil exports rose $2.5 billion, boosting shipments of industrial supplies and materials. <\/p>\n<p>There were also increases in exports of motor vehicles, parts and engines. Exports of services rose $0.1 billion to a record $81.8 billion, driven by travel and transport.<\/p>\n<p>Imports slipped 0.3% to $320.4 billion, with goods falling 0.5% to $260.9 billion. The decline in imports in March was likely flagging softening business investment as the lagged and cumulative effects of higher interest rates start to be felt. <\/p>\n<p>Capital goods imports fell $1.9 billion, pulled down by semiconductors, electric apparatus and excavating machinery. There were also decreases in imports of crude oil and organic chemicals. <\/p>\n<p>But consumer goods imports increased $2.4 billion, lifted by pharmaceutical preparations, other textile apparel and household goods. Imports of cellphones and other household goods decreased $1.5 billion. Imports of services increased $0.1 billion to $59.5 billion, supported by travel. Transport services fell. <\/p>\n<p>Adjusting for inflation, the goods trade deficit narrowed 4.4% to $99.4 billion. Real dollar exports of petroleum were the highest since the government started tracking the series in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>A smaller trade deficit was one of the contributors to the economy&#8217;s 1.1% annualized growth rate in the first quarter. Trade has contributed to GDP growth for four straight quarters, a trend that economists expect will persist into this quarter.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-trade-deficit-narrows\/shipping-containers-are-stacked-at-the-paul-w-conley-container\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ430JR-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ430JR-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) &#8211; The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as exports increased, which could position trade to continue contributing to economic growth in the second quarter. The trade deficit contracted 9.1% to $64.2 billion, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Data for February was revised to show the trade gap widening to $70.6 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":34249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ430JR-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34250,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34248\/revisions\/34250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}