Latest news with #tradedeficit
Zawya
09-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Egyptian exports jump nearly 20% in April, narrowing trade gap
Egypt's trade deficit narrowed by 9.5% in April 2025 to $3.42bn, compared with $3.78bn in the same month a year earlier, as the value of exports surged, the state statistics agency CAPMAS said on Tuesday. The value of exports increased by 19.8% to reach $4.10bn in April, up from $3.43bn in the same month of the previous year, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in its monthly bulletin. The rise in exports was driven by an increase in the value of several commodities, including petroleum products which jumped by 74.3%, ready-made clothes by 24.7%, fertilizers by 18.4%, and pasta and various food preparations by 51.4%. However, the value of some exports decreased in April compared with the year-ago period, including natural and liquefied gas which fell by 22.4%, fresh onions by 8.4%, and plastic products by 6.3%. The value of imports rose by 4.4% to $7.53 bn in April from $7.21 bn in the same month of 2024. This increase was due to a rise in the value of commodities such as natural gas, which surged by 79.1%, petroleum products by 3.5%, plastics in their primary forms by 6.9%, and raw materials of iron or steel by 0.04%. Meanwhile, imports of some key commodities declined, including wheat, which dropped by 37.5%, organic and inorganic chemicals by 10.8%, corn by 0.5%, and pharmaceuticals and medicinal preparations by 5.7%. © 2024 Daily News Egypt. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
May Trade Deficit Widens as Exports Fall
The US trade deficit widened more than projected in May amid falling exports, government data showed
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Combined U.S. Deficit With USMCA's Mexico, Canada Now Tops China's
As President Trump attempts, like many of his predecessors, to cut the U.S. merchandise trade ... More deficit, the combined U.S. deficit with USMCA partners Mexico and Canada has surpassed the U.S. deficit with China, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. The combined U.S. trade deficit with USMCA trade partners Mexico and Canada now exceeds the U.S. deficit with China, according to my analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data through May released Thursday. On an annual basis, I can find no evidence that the U.S. deficit with China has ever fallen below that of the combined total for Mexico and Canada, though the Census Bureau data I use only dates to 1992. Looking at year-to-date data through May, it did happen by the narrowest of margins 23 years ago, the year after China joined the World Trade Organization and its manufacturing might was released on the United States and the world. That year, the combined total of Mexico's and Canada's merchandise trade deficit was a slight 1.02% larger. By the end of the year, the U.S. deficit with China was 17.23% larger – and there was no looking back. Until now. President Trump has taken aim at U.S. trade deficits like to other U.S. president. Taming the U.S. trade deficit, a measure of both the American economy's might and the American consumers' appetite for consumption, is no easy task, as President Trump and his predecessors of the last three decades have found. Because the deficit is, indeed, a measure of the America's economy's might and the ability of its businesses and consumers to purchase more than the country produces, I do not share the concern – some might say obsessive concern – many place on the U.S. trade deficit. We pay too little attention to trade in services, including in trying to figure out how to measure the value – and the level of our surplus with the world. This includes tourism and education – visitors and students from abroad, respectively – 'services' which are now being damaged. We pay too little attention to the value our restaurant and hotel brands bring. We pay too little attention to the business generated by U.S. companies and their workers once imports reach our shores or borders. And, getting back to merchandise trade, or the trade in goods, I pay more attention to the relationship between exports and imports, as I wrote recently. But no president has pulled out the stops like Trump. With a wide-range of broadsides on industries and countries, beginning in his first term and an exponentially expansive effort in the first months of his second, Trump's efforts effectively raised the average U.S. tariff from 2.5% to as high as 27% at the April 2 'Liberation Day' announcement, according to one study. And … yet … the deficit keeps climbing. Having set a record six of the last eight years – three each for Trump in his first term and President Joe Biden – the 2025 deficit is almost certainly going to blow past the 2022 record of $1.18 trillion. The deficit through May is $606.48 billion. The U.S. deficit with China remains the nation's largest. China's contribution to that U.S. deficit is $101.96 billion through May. That's down from $162.47 billion in the first five months of 2022, a decline of 59.34%. A great deal of that U.S. deficit with China has been swallowed up by Vietnam, now clearly in Trump's sights, as well as by Taiwan, Japan, India, other Asian nations and, to a limited extent Mexico. Nevertheless, even though much of China's manufacturing prowess has simply shifted within the Asian continent, Mexico's contribution to the U.S. deficit through May is $79.44 billion and Canada's is $27.38 billion, for a total of $106.82 billion. The U.S. deficit with Mexico has risen rapidly and is approaching the value of the U.S. deficit with ... More China. The U.S. deficit with Mexico, less than a third of China's through May of 2022, is now 77.91 percent as large. (The U.S. deficit with Mexico is almost threee times larger than the U.S. deficit with Mexico.) Could Mexico's deficit alone top the U.S. deficit with China at some point? While that was certainly impossible to imagine a few years ago, it doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility today. China was the United States' top trade partner in 2020. Now Mexico is, and has been for the last two years. China was the top importing trade partner into the United States for 15 consecutive years – until Mexico surpassed it in 2023. As we look to July 9, when President Trump has indicated he will end the pause on his April 2 'Liberation Day' tariffs and begin instituting tariffs on the rest of the world, this creates an additional challenge for his efforts to diminish the U.S. trade deficit. The challenge, it seems, is closer to home than imagined.
CNA
03-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
US trade deficit widens in May as Trump tariffs fuel uncertainty
WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit widened more than expected in May, with both imports and exports declining as US President Donald Trump's tariffs sent shock waves through the economy and snagged supply chains. Trade data published Thursday (Jul 3) showed the world's biggest economy logged an overall trade gap of US$71.5 billion, in the month after Trump imposed a 10 per cent duty on most trading partners before pausing steeper rates for dozens of these economies. This was an expansion from the US$60.3 billion deficit in April, according to the Commerce Department. The figures, however, came as both imports and exports shrank in May. US imports were down 0.1 per cent to US$350.5 billion, as incoming shipments of goods ticked down. Imports of consumer goods dropped by US$4.0 billion, with those of certain apparel and toys both sliding, although imports of autos and parts climbed. US exports, meanwhile, dropped by 4.0 per cent to US$279.0 billion, with declines largely seen in industrial supplies and materials, the report showed. US trade has been rocked by Trump's sweeping tariff announcements since the start of this year, as companies stocked up to get ahead of expected levies and halted shipments to wait for high duties to come down. This was the case when Trump doubled down on tariffs impacting goods from China in April. Tit-for-tat tariffs on both sides surged to prohibitive levels before Washington and Beijing de-escalated tensions in mid-May. Trade is "at risk of introducing more volatility in the data," said Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics. This is especially as the world heads towards a Jul 9 deadline when Trump's pause on higher duties for dozens of economies including the European Union, Japan and South Korea is due to expire. "A worst-case tariff outcome this month would apply further downward pressure on imports," Yaros warned. The path forward is unclear and he expects levels to land somewhere between their current position and the steep levels initially unveiled in April. He cited a US deal with Vietnam announced Wednesday where the country averted the harsh tariff rate Trump first announced. But Yaros maintains that "the true health of the economy will be better distilled by the consumer and business spending figures, which are showing signs of weakness." Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, expects Federal Reserve policymakers to look past the fluctuations in inventories as they decide on further interest rate adjustments. "There is not much in this report to alter the Fed's view that the economy remains strong," he said.
Zawya
03-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
US trade deficit widens in May on weak exports
The U.S. trade deficit widened sharply in May as exports fell, but subsiding imports suggested trade could still lead an anticipated rebound in economic growth in the second quarter. The trade gap increased 18.7% to $71.5 billion in May, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday. Data for April was revised to show the trade deficit narrowed to $60.3 billion rather than the previously reported $61.6 billion. Economists polled by Reuters forecast the deficit would rise to $71.0 billion. The trade deficit chopped off a record 4.61 percentage points from gross domestic product in the first quarter, accounting for much of the 0.5% annualized pace of decline in GDP during that period. A reversal is expected in the second quarter, though the anticipated boost from trade is likely to be partially offset by tepid consumer spending. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, which have led businesses and households to front-load imports and goods purchases to avoid higher prices from duties, have muddled the economic picture. Economists warned it could take time for the tariff-related distortions to wash out of the economic data. The goods trade deficit increased 13.0% to $97.5 billion in May. Imports dipped 0.1% to $350.5 billion. Goods imports also eased 0.1% to $277.7 billion. Consumer goods imports decreased by $4.0 billion, pulled down by declines in other textile apparel and household goods as well as toys, games and sporting goods. But imports of pharmaceutical preparations increased. There were also decreases in imports of industrial supplies and materials, mostly reflecting finished metal shapes, but imports of nuclear fuel materials rose. Imports of motor vehicles, parts and engines increased $3.4 billion. Capital goods imports rose by $0.3 billion, lifted by computers. But imports of computer accessories decreased by $2.8 billion. Imports of services dropped $0.1 billion to $72.8 billion amid declines in transport and travel services, which offset rises in other business and maintenance and repair services. Exports fell 4.0% to $279.0 billion. Goods exports dropped 5.9% to $180.2 billion. They were led by a decline of $10.0 billion in exports of industrial supplies and materials, mostly non-monetary gold, natural gas and finished metal shapes. Capital goods exports decreased by $1.9 billion as shipments of semiconductors, civilian aircraft engines and telecommunications equipment fell. But exports of computer accessories rose. Consumer goods exports increased by $1.5 billion, driven by pharmaceutical preparations. Exports of services slipped $0.2 billion to $98.8 billion, weighed down by travel and transportation services. But exports of charges for the use of intellectual property increased as did those of other business services. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)
