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Trade Balance
About This Indicator
What Is the Trade Balance?
Exports minus imports of goods and services, in billions of dollars at an annual rate, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Positive is a surplus, negative a deficit.
Why Does It Matter?
A country that buys more than it sells covers the gap as a household does, by borrowing or selling assets: foreigners use the extra dollars to buy Treasury bonds, stocks, and companies. The same deficit can pay for new factories or a spending spree.
Can Politics Influence It?
Tariffs and trade agreements change what is traded. The overall balance follows saving, investment, the dollar, and growth at home and abroad.
Key Idea
The deficit more than halved from mid-2008 to mid-2009, not through trade policy but because the recession cut spending, so imports dropped far faster than exports. A shrinking deficit can signal a weakening economy as easily as a stronger trading position.
Not Scored
Source: BEA. NIPA Table 1.1.5 (A019RC).
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