by Calculated Risk on 11/10/2005 08:30:00 AM

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the monthly trade balance report today for September:

"... total September exports of $105.2 billion and imports of $171.3 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $66.1 billion, $6.8 billion more than the $59.3 billion in August, revised.

September exports were $2.8 billion less than August exports of $108.0 billion. September imports were $4.0 billion more than August imports of $167.3 billion."

Note: all numbers are seasonally adjusted.


Click on graph for larger image.

The September record was the result of both a sharp drop in exports and a significant increase in imports.

Imports from China set another record of $23.307 Billion, while exports to China were off from August ($3.2 Billion vs. $3.9 Billion). Imports from Japan were off slightly to $10.9 Billion.


The average contract price for oil set a new record of $57.32 per barrel breaking the old record of $52.65 in July. Crude oil imports dropped significantly, but the quantity of refined products increased. On a NSA basis, the value for September imports was the same as August petroleum imports.

The SA petroleum trade deficit set another record of $22.2 Billion.

This was a difficult month to forecast due to the hurricanes.