ZCZC
BCN-24
US-TRADE-DEFICIT
U.S. trade deficit narrows in October as imports, exports fall
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2019 (BSS/Xinhua) – The overall U.S. trade deficit
narrowed in October as imports fell faster than exports, the Commerce
Department reported on Thursday.
The trade deficit in goods and services fell by 7.6 percent to 47.2 billion
U.S. dollars in October from a revised 51.1 billion dollars in September, the
department said.
Exports for October were 207.1 billion dollars, down 0.4 billion dollars
from September, while imports fell to 254.3 billion dollars, 4.3 billion
dollars less than the prior month.
The decline in overall imports was driven by fewer imports of consumers
products including cell phones, clothing, toys, games and sporting goods,
according to the department.
That could signal weakening consumer demand and slower economic growth in
the fourth quarter as trade tensions between the United States and major
trading partners drag on.
Approximately 80 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed recently indicated that
they were concerned by the potential impact of the tariffs on prices, Matthew
Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation (NRF), said
Tuesday.
Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, also
expected U.S. economic growth to “be weak” in the fourth quarter as
businesses cut inventories due to trade uncertainty.
“One of the reasons the fourth quarter is going to be weak, we believe, is
probably a significant inventory adjustment, which might be as much as half a
percent or more of GDP growth,” Kaplan said in an interview with CNBC last
week.
“Just means people have been destocking. And probably the reason they were
destocking is there was a lot of pessimism over the last number of months
about, you know, future growth prospects,” he said.
The U.S. economy is expected to expand at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in
the fourth quarter, lower than the 2.1-percent growth rate in the third
quarter, according to the latest forecast released by the Federal Reserve
Bank of Atlanta on Monday.
BSS/XINHUA/HR/1455