Today’s USA Today article on the trade deficit picked up our point that excluding a surge in oil imports, the May trade numbers were quite encouraging…a nice change. Excluding petroleum, goods exports (adjusted for inflation) surged by $2 billion in May while imports fell by the same amount.
After looking at the data a little closer today, I discovered another encouraging nugget that I though I’d pass along. Over the past 12 months, exports have outpaced imports in every product category (capital goods, consumer goods, industrial supplies, autos, and foods feeds & beverages. Click here to see the chart!
Though not unprecedented, this is an unusual event. In fact, a clean sweep of exports out-pacing imports in every product category has happened only one other time (June 04 to June 05) in the past 11 years! Lets hope it become less or a rarity in upcoming months.
July 16th, 2006 on 9:57 pm
So, does that mean we can stop bashing China, and just enjoy low-cost goods?