Update USA Trade Balance

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.