Economics
U.S. GDP Growth Masks Biggest Decline in Imports Since 2009
- Trade statistics offer camouflage for weak American demand
- Trade-gap contraction shows slowing demand, not export surge
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here.
President Donald Trump has staked his re-election campaign on a U.S. economy that in his telling has become a “roaring geyser of opportunity.” Thursday’s latest growth data, however, showed that geyser may be partly an optical illusion.
The biggest contributor to the 2.1% annualized pace of growth recorded in the fourth quarter of last year was 1.5 percentage points from net exports, almost all of which came from the biggest slump in imports seen since the Great Recession of 2009.