Briefing.com: Trade Balance

Updated: 09-May-19 09:58 ET

March Trade Balance

Updated: 09-May-19 09:58 ET

Highlights

The trade deficit was $50.0 billion in March (Briefing.com consensus -$51.2 bln), up from -$49.3 billion in February.
Exports of $212.0 billion were $2.1 billion more than February exports. Imports of $262.0 billion were $2.8 billion more than February imports.

Key Factors

Exports of industrial supplies and materials increased $1.7 billion. Exports of capital goods decreased $0.5 billion.
Imports of industrial supplies and materials increased $2.4 billion. Imports of consumer goods decreased $0.7 billion, with cell phones and other household goods decreasing $1.1 billion.
The deficit with China decreased $1.9 billion to $28.3 billion, as exports increased $1.4 billion and imports decreased $0.5 billion.
The real trade deficit increased to -$82.0 billion in March from -$81.6 billion in February. That left the first quarter average at -$82.4 billion, which is better than the -$87.4 billion fourth quarter average.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that there hasn't been a meaningful improvement in the trade deficit despite efforts to reduce it with increased tariffs.