Category: Trade

International sales activity has been a major economic and political topic since the beginning of this country’s discovery when explorers risked life-and-limb to sail across a vast body of water that might have been a one-way trip. Today, the center of global commerce is still focused on the “New World”, but is more directed toward how much of a company’s sales activity is attributed to international markets. The answer to that important question is almost 50%.

Trade with other countries continued to expand and the deficit declined by 0.1 billion to $43.7 billion in March. Even though the monthly exports and imports dropped, they dropped nearly equally. The trade balance movement on a monthly basis was close to the average change since 1997. On a year-over-year basis the trade deficit grew by 7.5% because imports grew by $47.5 billion while exports grew, but by a lesser amount, $30.0 billion. The trade deficit remained near the recent trend of the past six years, post-Great Recession.

Trade Balance increases to $48.5 billion an 11.8% increase Year-over-Year