03/28/2024

Trade Deficit Hits Near Decade High, Raising Specter of Twin Deficits

The U.S. trade position worsened in February, raising the stakes in the Trump administration’s intensifying effort to narrow the gap between what the U.S. imports and what it sells abroad.

The trade deficit in goods and services rose to $57.6 billion in February, the Commerce Department said Thursday, the sixth straight monthly increase and the widest the gap has been since October 2008, when it was $60.2 billion and the U.S. was deep in recession.

For the first two months of the year, the deficit was $114.3 billion, 23% wider than a year earlier. Imports were up $44 billion, or 9.1%, for the first two months of the year from a year earlier. Exports grew 5.9%, or $22 billion, in the first two months of the year from a year earlier.

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