Economics
Smaller Trade Gap a Mixed Blessing as Demand Weakens Everywhere
- Goods trade deficit slumps to smallest in more than a year
- Reason for narrowing not good as imports drop to five-year low
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Thanks to a narrower merchandise trade gap, it now looks like U.S. economic growth was a little less horrible in the first quarter than economists had previously penciled in.
The deficit between the value of exports and imports shrank to $56.9 billion in March, the smallest since February 2015 and less than the lowest estimate of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, according to advance data issued by the Commerce Department Wednesday. It represented a 10.3 percent improvement from a final reading of $63.4 billion in February.