The US trade deficit contracted sharply in October, hitting the lowest level since mid-2009 as imports declined, a trend that if sustained could see trade again adding to \u2060economic growth in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
The trade gap narrowed by 39% to $29.4 billion, the lowest level since June 2009, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau said today.<\/p>\n
Economists polled by Reuters \u200dhad forecast the trade defici trising to $58.9 billion. The report was delayed because of the 43-day shutdown of the government.<\/p>\n
Imports decreased 3.2% to $331.4 billion. Goods import stumbled 4.5% to $255 billion, the lowest level since June 2023. The decline in imports could be the result of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The drop also suggests softening domestic demand.<\/p>\n
Imports of industrial supplies dropped $2.7 billion to the lowest level since February 2021, mostly reflecting a $1.4 billion decline in non-monetary gold, which is excluded in the calculation of gross domestic product.<\/p>\n
Consumer goods imports decreased $14 billion to \u2060the lowest level since June 2020, pulled down by a $14.3 billion drop in pharmaceutical preparations. But imports of capital goods increased $6.8 billion, \u2060boosted by computer accessories, telecommunications equipment and computers, likely linked to artificial intelligence investment.<\/p>\n
Exports rose 2.6% to a record $302 billion in October. Goods exports \u2060jumped \u200d3.8% to $195.9 \u2060billion, also an all-time high.<\/p>\n
They were boosted by exports of non-monetary gold and other precious metals. But exports of consumer \u200dgoods, mostly pharmaceutical preparations, fell as did those of other goods.<\/p>\n
The goods \u2060trade deficit compressed by 24.5% to $59.1 billion, the lowest level since March 2016.<\/p>\n
Exports and imports of services were both the highest on record.<\/p>\n
There have been large swings in the trade deficit amid Trump’s protectionist trade policy. Trade contributed to GDP growth in the second and third \u200dquarters of 2025.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Federal Reserve is currently forecasting GDP increasing at a 2.7% annualised rate in the fourth quarter. The economy grew at \u2060a 4.3% pace in the July-September quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US trade deficit contracted sharply in October, hitting the lowest level since mid-2009 as imports declined, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-235222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}