Updated: 06-Mar-25 09:37 ET

January Trade Balance

Updated: 06-Mar-25 09:37 ET

Highlights

• The January Trade Balance showed a large widening in the trade deficit to $131.4 billion (Briefing.com consensus -$93.5 billion) from an upwardly revised $98.1 billion (from -$98.4 billion) in December.
• January imports were $36.6 billion more than December imports while January exports were $3.3 billion more than December exports.

Key Factors

• Exports of capital goods increased $4.2 billion.
• Exports of consumer goods increased $1.7 billion.
• Imports of industrial supplies and materials surged $23.1 billion.
• Imports of consumer goods increased $6.0 billion.
• Imports of capital goods jumped $4.6 billion.
• The goods deficit with China was $29.7 billion in January.
• The real goods deficit increased $30.8 billion, or 27.5%, to $142.9 billion in January.

Big Picture

• The key takeaway from the report is that efforts to get in front of expected tariff actions drove the huge increase in imports, which will be a drag on Q1 GDP forecasts.

Category	JAN	DEC	NOV	OCT	SEP
Trade Deficit	-$131.4B	-$98.1B	-$78.2B	-$73.7B	-$85.0B
Exports	$269.8B	$266.5B	$273.6B	$266.2B	$269.8B
Imports	$401.2B	$364.6B	$351.8B	$339.9B	$354.8B