Economy

Narrower Trade Deficit Seen in April 2016

Jon C. Ogg

Published: May 25, 2016 10:20 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 7:35 am

Wednesday was not a major day for economic releases, but we did get a look at the latest data for international trade in goods. The trade deficit for April 2016 was −$57.5 billion. The prior month’s reading was revised to −$55.6 billion from −$56.9 billion.

Bloomberg had its consensus estimate pegged at −$60.2 billion, with its Econoday range listed as −$63.4 billion to −$57.5 billion.

The U.S. Department of Commerce showed that exports of goods were up by 1.8% from March’s reading, but it also showed that the imports of goods rose by some 2.3% in April versus March.

This number may have been narrower than expected and may show increased trading activity, but investors and economists alike have not really used any trade deficit numbers for market-moving events in many years (maybe since the 1990s, if not earlier).

Industrial supplies exports were up by a sharp 5.1%, which may partly reflect that pop in energy prices around petroleum of late. Auto-related exports were also up handily by 4.5%. Consumer goods exports were up right at 1.0%, and exports of food and food-related products rose by 4.4% in April.

Imports show special strength, led, in contrast to exports, by capital goods which jumped 4.3% in the month. Industrial supplies, again reflecting higher oil costs, rose 4.0%, with imports of autos up 1.9%. Imports of consumer goods, a key category, were up a more moderate 0.9%.

If you want to see just how wide the deficit is each year, imports of goods in 2015 came to $2.24 trillion, versus exports of $1.5 trillion. That leaves a total trade level of goods as −$736.02 billion.