The US trade deficit fell in 2019 for the first time in six years with imports and exports both shrinking, in the latest sign of how the trade war has rippled across global markets.
The trade deficit in goods and services fell 1.7 per cent from a year ago to $616.7bn, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. That marked the first drop since 2013. Exports fell 4 per cent to $249.3bn, while imports to the US declined 2.4 per cent to $865.9bn.
Last year was marked by trade tensions between the US and China. The latest global trade figures from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis showed trade volumes fell in November for the sixth-consecutive month, the longest contraction since the 2008-09 financial crisis.
Washington and Beijing last month signed a so-called phase one deal declaring a truce in a nearly two-year trade war between the world’s largest economies.
A separate release on Wednesday showed private sector hiring surged past expectations in January signalling strength in the US labour market ahead of Friday’s official non-farm payroll report.
The private sector created 291,000 jobs at the start of 2020 — the biggest monthly gain since May 2015, according to payroll processor ADP. That exceeded expectations for an increase of 156,000.
Medium-sized businesses were the biggest employers, adding 128,000 jobs, while large firms, that employ more than 500 people, created 69,000 jobs.
The jobs data delivered encouraging signs for the health of the US economy even as concerns about the economic fallout from the rapidly spreading coronavirus have unnerved investors.
US stocks rose after the upbeat jobs data, with the S&P 500 index up 0.7 per cent.
