US trade deficit is at its lowest level since 2009
Washington, January 8, 2017 – Last October, the US trade deficit recorded its lowest level since mid-2009 during the financial crisis and Great Recession.
The US Department of Commerce explained in a report issued today that, with the rise in exports and the decline in imports, the trade deficit reached only $29.4 billion in October, a decrease of 39 percent from the previous month.
She added that exports increased by 2.6 percent, while imports decreased by 3.2 percent, and that, however, the cumulative deficit since the beginning of the year is still higher by 7.7 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
In another report, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that productivity rose in the third quarter of this year by 4.9 percent, and that the increase in productivity helped reduce unit labor costs (the average cost that an establishment pays to workers for producing one unit of goods or services) by 1.9 percent during this period, which far exceeds expectations and indicates that the labor market does not pose any upward pressure on inflation.
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