Trade deficit shrank more than expected

Flickr

The US trade deficit shrank more than expected to $40.44 billion in March, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

This was a decrease of $6.5 billion from February’s revised $47.0 billion.

Economists estimated that the excess of imports over exports — or the trade deficit — shrunk slightly to $41.50 billion in March.

The Commerce Department also reported that the average goods and services deficit decreased by $1.4 billion to $44.4 billion for the three months ending in March. And the average goods and services deficit decreased by $0.3 billion year-over-year from the three months ending in March 2015.

The deficit with China decreased by $6.2 billion to $26.0 billion in March and the balance with the UK shifted from a deficit of $0.5 billion to a surplus of $0.5 billion in March.

Moreover, the surplus with Saudi Arabia decreased by $1.2 billion to $0.1 billion.

And, for what it’s worth, Canada posted the widest trade deficit ever.