U.S. Trade Deficit Widened in May as Both Exports, Imports Fell -- Update
July 02 2020 - 11:33AM
Dow Jones News
By Harriet Torry
WASHINGTON -- Trade between the U.S. and the rest of the world
slowed further in May in a sign of the continuing toll that the
coronavirus pandemic was taking on the global economy.
Exports from the U.S. fell 4.4% to $144.5 billion, a Commerce
Department report showed on Thursday. Imports slipped 0.9% to
$199.1 billion, leaving a seasonally adjusted deficit of $54.6
billion, an increase of 9.7% and the widest since December
2018.
The U.S. usually runs a deficit in goods and a surplus in
services such as medical care, higher education, royalties and
payments processing. In May, the services surplus shrank to its
lowest level since February 2016 as demand for business services
waned, borders remained closed and travelers stayed home.
"We've got this enormous fall in services trade which maps to a
slowdown globally centered around services," said economist Brad
Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "This
is not your typical recession."
Exports of U.S. goods were the lowest since August 2009.
Shipments of industrial supplies, capital goods and autos all fell,
while consumer-goods exports picked up slightly. Imports of
consumer goods, food and industrial supplies rose slightly as
states began to reopen across the U.S.
A separate report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed
that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 11.1% in June from 13.3% in
May. The jobless rate was still well above the pre-pandemic level
of about 3.5%, and a recent coronavirus spike could hamper the
labor market's recovery.
The pace of declines in imports and exports slowed from recent
months. "Even so, trade flows will likely remain restrained owing
to weaker global growth and subdued demand at home and abroad,"
Rubeela Farooqi, an economist at High Frequency Economics, Ltd.,
wrote in a note to clients.
The International Monetary Fund last week downgraded its
forecasts for the global economy this year, as countries made less
progress than expected curbing the pandemic and salvaging
businesses. The IMF expects the global economy will shrink 4.9%
this year, compared with its April estimate of a 3% decline.
Year to date, the U.S. goods and services deficit decreased 9.1%
from the same period in 2019. Exports to the European Union in May
were the lowest since January 2006.
Dow Inc. finance chief, Howard Ungerleider, last week described
the second quarter as "a mixed bag" for the materials science
company during a virtual conference, with diverging demand patterns
in regions with worsening coronavirus outbreaks.
Some companies are more optimistic.
"We believe we've passed the trough of the economic impacts of
the pandemic in most countries around the world," said Ray Young,
chief financial officer at Chicago-based agricultural company
Archer Daniels Midland Co., at a virtual conference in
mid-June.
"My viewpoint is that U.S.-China trade, we still believe this is
on track. We're expecting the fourth quarter to be a very strong
quarter for our U.S. agricultural exports in soft commodities,
particularly soybeans into China," he said.
Beijing has committed to boosting its purchases of U.S.
agricultural and manufactured goods, energy and services by $200
billion over two years as part of a preliminary trade
agreement.
The U.S. deficit in goods with China widened to a seasonally
adjusted $27.9 billion in May, Thursday's report showed. Year to
date, the goods deficit with China is nearly 25% narrower than in
the same period of 2019.
A trade deficit subtracts from the calculation of
gross-domestic-product growth. A widening of the trade deficit in
both April and May suggests trade will be a drag on growth for the
quarter as a whole.
Write to Harriet Torry at harriet.torry@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 02, 2020 11:18 ET (15:18 GMT)
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