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Economy in Brief
Money and Credit Growth Both Slow After Spurt; And Now It Is the Virus that Is Spurting
The surge in EMU money and credit growth is passing...
U.S. New Home Sales Strengthen Unexpectedly in August, But Prices Ease
New single-family home sales increased to highest level since September 2006...
Kansas City Fed Factory Index Eases in September
The Kansas City Fed reported that their manufacturing sector business activity index fell to 11 in September...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Edge Higher
Seasonally adjusted initial claims in state programs edged up 4,000 in September 19 week to 870,000...
IFO Sectors Rebound... But With Restraint
The IFO index and its two principal components, the current index and expectations index, all improved in September...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller December 18, 2012
The U.S. current account deficit lessened last quarter to $107.5B from $118.1B in Q2. The easing left the deficit to GDP ratio at 2.7%, its least in roughly three years. Total exports gained 0.2% (1.7% y/y) although goods exports slipped 0.2% (+2.9% y/y). Total imports fell 1.3% (+1.2y/y) paced by a 2.2% (+0.8% y/y) drop in merchandise imports. Services exports rose 1.0% (2.5% y/y) as travel exports gained 0.9% (7.9% y/y). Imports of services advanced a lesser 0.4% (0.3% y/y). Travel imports grew 0.7% (4.2% y/y).
From the capital account, $34.2B was withdrawn by foreigners on direct investment in the U.S. versus $101.4B in payments to the U.S. on direct investment abroad.
Balance of Payments data are in Haver's USINT database, with summaries available in USECON. The expectations figure is in the AS1REPNA database.
| US Balance of Payments SA | Q3'12 | Q2'12 | Q1'12 | Year Ago | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Account Balance ($ Bil.) | -107.5 | -118.1 | -133.6 | -108.2 | -465.9 | -442.0 | -382.0 |
| Deficit % of GDP | 2.7% | 3.0% | 3.5% | 3.2% | 3.1% | 3.1% | 2.7% |
| Balance on Goods ($Bil.) | -173.9 | -185.7 | -194.3 | -180.6 | -738.4 | -645.1 | -505.8 |
| Exports | -0.2% | 1.4% | 1.7% | 2.9% | 16.2% | 20.5% | -18.2% |
| Imports | -2.2% | -0.5% | 2.0% | 0.8% | 15.6% | 22.8% | -26.3% |
| Balance on Services ($Bil.) | 49.4 | 48.3 | 45.9 | 45.6 | 178.5 | 150.4 | 126.6 |
| Exports | 1.0% | 1.3% | 3.0% | 2.5% | 9.5% | 8.7% | -4.9% |
| Imports | 0.4% | -0.3% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 6.0% | 5.4% | -5.2% |
| Unilateral Transfers ($Bil.) | -33.8 | -32.7 | -32.7 | -31.8 | -133.1 | -131.1 | -122.5 |
