Intermoney | US foreign trade posted a $78.8 billion deficit in July, which was within our forecast, widening the gap to the highest level in two years, driven by a surge in goods imports. But it also reflected the intention of companies to ensure adequate supply in the face of a possible dock workers’ strike, which led the value of imports of goods and services to rise by 2.1%.
And as we say, this was more to do with the goods side including increases in purchases of industrial goods, capital goods and consumer goods, as imports of some services such as travel even fell. But on the goods side, the US merchandise trade deficit with China increased to $27.2bn, the largest since September 2022. In this case, we understand that retailers are in the process of stocking up for the holiday shopping season and this also boosted foreign purchases.
