US Trade Gap Widens Unexpectedly

The US Commerce Department reported today that the US trade deficit widened by 4.8 percent in May to $42.3 billion. The increase in the deficit resulted from the fact that the gain in imports greatly exceeded the growth of exports.

The figures show U.S. “consumer spending hasn’t petered out yet and neither has business spending,” said Jay Bryson, senior global economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. Still, “you do have growth in some of the major trading partners slowing down, particularly in Europe, coupled with the stronger dollar. All those things will help slow export growth” in coming months, he said.

Source: Bloomberg

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