By CountingPips.com
The United States trade deficit decreased unexpectedly in January as imports fell at a faster pace than exports, according to a release by the Commerce Department today. The U.S. trade deficit decreased by $2.6 billion to a total international trade deficit of $37.3 billion in January following a deficit of $39.9 billion in December. Today’s trade deficit numbers surpassed the market forecasts that were expecting the deficit would rise to approximately $41.0 billion for the month.
January’s trade in goods deficit fell by $2.5 billion to a total goods deficit of $49 billion while the surplus in services rose by $0.1 billion to a total surplus of $12.1 billion.
On an annual basis, the U.S. trade deficit is $0.4 billion higher than the January 2009 level as exports have increased by 15 percent ($18.7 billion) while imports have increased 11.9 percent ($19.1 billion) annually.
Contributing to the decreased deficit level was a decline in January imports by $3.1 billion from December to a total of $180.0 billion. Imports had increased for four straight months before January’s turnaround. U.S. exports declined for the month to a total of $142.7 billion which was a decrease of $0.5 billion from December’s total.
The politically sensitive U.S. trade deficit with China edged up in January, despite the overall deficit decrease. The deficit with China rose to $18.3 billion in January from a deficit of $18.1 billion in December. Other notable U.S. trade deficits were with the European Union at $2.8 billion, Japan at $3.3 billion, Mexico at $4.6 billion, OPEC at $7.2 billion and Canada at $3.9 billion.
U.S. trade surpluses with other countries for January included Australia at $0.9 billion, Hong Kong at $1.6 billion and Belgium at $0.3 billion.
Weekly Jobless Claims fall by 6,000.
A separate government release by the U.S. Labor Department showed that weekly U.S. jobless claims decreased in the week that ended on March 6th. New jobless claims edged down to a total of 462,000 unemployed workers, a decline over the prior week by 6,000 workers. The jobless claims data was right in line with expectations as market forecasts predicted a fall to 460,000 jobless claims. The 4-week moving average of unemployed workers rose by 5,000 from the prior week to a total of 475,500.
Meanwhile, workers seeking continuing claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending February 27th increased for the week. Continuing claims rose by 37,000 workers to a total of 4,558,000 unemployed workers. The four week moving average of continuing claims showed no change for the week to remain at 4,581,000 workers.
