WASHINGTON – The nation’s trade deficit widened 7.8 percent in April to $60.9 billion, an increase of 4.4 billion from March’s revised $56.5 billion, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis said in a report today.
Analysts had expected the deficit would widen to $60 billion, from the initial March estimate of $58.2 billion, based on the median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 70 economists.
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The nation’s trade deficit in goods increased $4.5 billion from March to $72.9 billion, while the service-sector’s surplus increased $0.1 billion to $12.0 billion.
Compared with April 2007, the trade gap widened by $0.6 billion, as U.S. exports increased $25.0 billion, or 19.2 percent, and imports edged up 0.3 billion to $34.0 billion.
“A lot of it is in the value of oil,” Jay Bryson, global economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., told Bloomberg Radio. “Exports did pretty well,” he noted. “This is consistent with strong growth in the rest of the world helping our exports and also a weak dollar.”
Additional information, including the full U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services report for April 2008, is available from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis at www.bea.gov.
