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The foreign trade deficit in goods and services increased by 11.2% in September and reached $80.9 billion, due to a drop in exports, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The September foreign trade deficit is a new monthly record for the U.S. economy.
“The global pandemic and economic recovery continued to affect international trade in the month of September,” the official report noted, referring to problems in global supply chains that are causing shortages in numerous sectors.
The value of exports in September fell by 3%, to $207.6 billion; while imports grew slightly, by 0.6%, to $288.5 billion.
After registering a deficit of $73.3 billion in August, analysts expected a negative balance of around $75 billion in September.
The foreign trade deficit with China increased by $3.4 billion to $31.5 billion.
The U.S. deficit with Mexico rose by $2.3 billion that month, bringing the cumulative negative balance for the year to $8.8 billion.
Economic recovery slows down
Economic activity showed the impact of the pandemic with negative figures in gross domestic product (GDP) growth throughout the final three quarters of 2020.
By mid-year, the United States had recovered to the economic level prior to the arrival of covid-19. Expansion slowed between July and September, when it recorded growth of only 0.5%, due to the Biden Administration’s economic policies and restrictive confinement measures.
In the previous three months, economic growth had been 1.6%.
