Out of balance

The Commerce Department serves up its March snapshot of the nation’s trade gap today.

The gap between the value of goods and services the U.S. sells abroad and what it buys increased to $71.1 billion in February as a decline in exports more than offset a slight dip in imports. Economists predict the trade gap widened to $74.8 billion in March. The bigger the U.S. trade deficit gets, the more it’s likely to weigh down the nation’s economic growth.