by Calculated Risk on 7/13/2005 08:33:00 AM

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the monthly trade balance report today for May:

"... total May exports of $106.9 billion and imports of $162.2 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $55.3 billion, $1.6 billion less than the $56.9 billion in April, revised.

May exports were $0.2 billion more than April exports of $106.7 billion.

May imports were $1.4 billion less than April imports of $163.6 billion."

Note: all numbers are seasonally adjusted.


Click on graph for larger image.

UPDATE: fixed a couple of errors.
MayJune 2005 was only slightly14% worse than May 2004. For the first five months of 2005, the trade deficits is up 20% over the same period in 2004.

The average contract price for oil dropped from a record $44.76 per barrel in April to $43.08 in May. The temporary drop in oil prices lowered the impact of oil on the trade deficit for May. However, the June trade deficit will be impacted by record high oil prices again.

I think the deficit will start to expand again starting in June.