The US trade deficit shrank slightly in April, government data showed Tuesday, with energy exports bolstered by a supply crunch following war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The overall trade gap narrowed 1.2 percent to $55.9 billion, said the Commerce Department. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal had expected a $56.1 billion figure.<\/p>\n
US exports of crude oil and petroleum products have surged since US-Israeli strikes on Iran from late February, which triggered Tehran’s retaliation in virtually blocking the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
The strait is a key waterway for energy transit, sending prices soaring.<\/p>\n
“Energy exports are an important factor here with the US supplying more in international markets, largely from existing inventories,” ING chief international economist James Knightley told AFP.<\/p>\n
This has “helped keep something of a lid on global energy prices that have been under upward pressure” from the supply shock, he added.<\/p>\n
But he warned that the deficit widened when petroleum products were excluded.<\/p>\n
“Should we get a resolution that leads to a recovery in oil and gas supply then the US trade deficit will quickly deteriorate once again,” he said.<\/p>\n
In April, exports rose 2.6 percent to $327.1 billion, fueled by crude oil, fuel oil and other petroleum products.<\/p>\n
Government data showed that exports of capital goods like computers and civilian aircraft also climbed.<\/p>\n
While the global economy appears to be managing through the war, Nationwide financial market economist Oren Klachkin cautioned that “the standoff poses a threat to the US outlook as long as the strait (of Hormuz) remains closed.”<\/p>\n
US imports, meanwhile, rose by 2.0 percent to $383 billion in April.<\/p>\n
This was boosted by imports of products like computers and semiconductors, thanks to an ongoing demand for hardware needed in the artificial intelligence buildout.<\/p>\n
“With demand for the AI build out still elevated, we expect capital goods imports will remain solid this year,” US economist Grace Zwemmer of Oxford Economics told AFP.<\/p>\n
Businesses have continued spending on high-tech goods linked to data centers, a key driver of economic growth, with President Donald Trump’s tariffs excluding some of these products.<\/p>\n
“Tariffs could still impact trade flows this year, although likely to a lesser extent than in 2025,” Zwemmer added.<\/p>\n
This comes as the Trump administration rushes to roll out more durable tariffs on goods from various trading partners after the Supreme Court struck down a swath of the president’s global duties in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US trade deficit shrank slightly in April, government data showed Tuesday, with energy exports bolstered by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-469555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}