He US deficit in its foreign trade of goods and services rose 23% in April compared to March, reaching 74.6 billion dollars, reported this Wednesday the Office of Economic Analysis (BEA, in English).
In the fourth month of the year, the imports they increased 1.5%, while exports fell 3.6%, at a time when data like this can show the effects of interest rate hikes.
The rise in the deficit occurs after a drop registered in March and in a global economic context delicate, after the Federal Reserve It has been chaining increases in interest rates for more than a year to try to lower inflation and cool the economy.
The exports April were 249,000 million dollars, 9,200 million less than those registered in March. April imports were 323.6 billion, 4.8 billion more than March imports.
The increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in goods deficit from 14,500 million to 96,100 million and an increase in the services surplus from 600 million to 21,600 million.
So far this year, the deficit in goods and services decreased by 86.5 billion dollars, or 23.9% compared to the same period in 2022. Exports increased by 55.9 billion or 5.8% while imports decreased by 30.6 billion or the 2.3%
In the average of the last three months, a measure used by economists to determine the trend, the average deficit of goods and services increased 1.5 billion to 68.5 billion.
Average exports decreased 3.4 billion to 253.6 billion, while average imports decreased 1.9 billion to 322.1 billion in April.
Looking at goods and services separately, in April exports of goods increased by 9.4 billion to 167.1 billion dollars in April, while exports of services increased by 200 million to 81.9 billion.
Regarding imports, those of goods increased by 5.200 million to 263.200 million, while those of services decreased by 400 million to 60.400 million.
By region, the figures for April show a surplus with the Netherlands (4,200), South and Central America (4,100), Belgium (1,900), Hong Kong (1,600), Australia (1,000), the United Kingdom (900) and Brazil (700). .
Deficits were recorded with China (24,200), European Union (17,300), Mexico (13,000), Vietnam (8,500), Germany (7,600), Japan (6,800), Canada (6,100), Ireland (5,000), Switzerland (4,500), South Korea (4,300), Italy (3,800), India (3,500), Taiwan (3,500), Malaysia (2,300), France (1,200), Singapore (700), Israel (600), and Saudi Arabia (400).
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