It wasn't just his approval rating that was at a record low when President Biden left office; data from the Commerce Department today shows that Biden's last month in office saw the US merchandise-trade deficit widen to a record low (high). The shortfall in goods expanded 18% to $122.1 billion...
Source: Bloomberg
This was dramatically worse than the expected $105.5 billion...
Source: Bloomberg
Breaking down the details:
Imports grew nearly 4% to $289.6 billion.
Exports decreased 4.5% to $167.5 billion.
Additionally, the Commerce Department report showed retail inventories slid 0.3% last month, the first drop in a year.
Inventories at car dealers fell 1.2%, marking the third straight decline after more than two years of gains.
Stockpiles at wholesalers declined 0.5%.
The figures suggest trade will be a bigger drag on fourth-quarter gross domestic product, which will be reported on Thursday.
Prior to the data, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecast had net exports barely adding to GDP and inventories subtracting 0.23 percentage point.
US manufacturers remain challenged by weak overseas economies and a strong dollar that risk keeping the trade gap wide this year.
