America’s trade deficit shrank more than forecast in March as imports fell in percentage terms by the most in seven years and outpaced a decline in shipments overseas.
The gap narrowed 13.9% to $40.4 billion, the smallest since February 2015, the Commerce Department reported on May 4. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a $41.2 billion deficit.
Imported merchandise declined 3.6%, the most since February 2009, as American companies worked to get inventories in line with weaker first-quarter demand. At the same time, shipments overseas fell for the fifth time in six months amid soft global sales.
“The most troubling thing was in the consumer sector -- we’re not exactly sure what’s going on there and whether it’s sort of a one-off effect,” in terms of the slump in imports, Jay Bryson, global economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC, in Charlotte, North Carolina, said before the report.