Report: U.S. ’22 trade deficit up 12.2%
Commerce Department says goods, services discrepancy reached $948.1B
WASHINGTON — The overall U.S. trade deficit rose 12.2% last year, nearing $1 trillion as Americans continued to purchase record volumes of foreign products, according to data released Tuesday by the Commerce Department.
The goods and services deficit reached $948.1 billion, up $103 billion from the previous year. Exports of goods and services rose 17.7% to $3 trillion, outpacing the growth of imports, which rose 16.3% to $4 trillion.
Commerce said exports were buoyed last year by strong growth in U.S. energy shipments abroad after Europe cut many economic ties with Russia, as well as a recovery in the U.S. travel sector since the covid-19 pandemic hit.
Trade between the United States and China also continued to grow, despite rising tensions between two of the world’s biggest economies being further strained last week by the discovery of a Chinese balloon flying over the U.S.
The U.S. has been bringing in a smaller share of its imported goods from China in recent years, partly because of tariffs and other trade restrictions. But overall U.S. trade with China reached a record last year, according to the Commerce Department. The U.S. trade deficit with China also grew to $382.9 billion, although it did not surpass previous records, the agency said.
In December, U.S. exports fell slightly from the previous month to $250.2 billion, reflecting a slowing global economy, and imports edged up to $317.6 billion, according to the agency.
Economists and politicians have varying views about how much the trade deficit matters for the health of the U.S. economy. Some economists point out that the trade deficit tends to grow when the U.S. economy grows, and Americans are more able to buy the goods and services they want from abroad. But many also worry that sustained trade deficits can result in lower employment and economic growth in the U.S.
Regardless, when the Commerce Department calculates U.S. gross domestic product, its measure of economic growth, the agency adds exports to the national figures for federal government and private investment and spending and subtracts imports.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, weak exports of goods weighed on the gross domestic product, even though imports also decreased.