China News Agency, Washington, February 7 (Reporter Sha Hanting) The U.S. Department of Commerce released data on the 7th local time showing that the U.S. trade deficit will increase to $948.1 billion in 2022, a record high.
The data show that the US trade deficit in goods and services in 2022 will soar 12.2% from 2021 to US$948.1 billion.
Exports rose 17.7 percent from the previous year to $3.01 trillion, while imports rose 16.3 percent to $3.96 trillion.
Among them, the deficit of trade in goods increased by 9.3% to US$1.19 trillion, and the surplus of trade in services decreased by 0.6% to US$243.7 billion.
The data released on the same day also showed that in December last year, the US trade deficit in goods and services increased by 10.5% month-on-month to US$67.4 billion.
Among them, the export value decreased by 0.9% to 250.2 billion US dollars, and the import value increased by 1.3% to 317.6 billion US dollars.
According to Bloomberg's analysis, last year's record US trade deficit was mainly driven by import growth.
The strong consumption demand of consumers and the large amount of inventory replenishment behavior of enterprises before the peak sales season have driven imports.
For 2023, experts generally believe that global trade growth is expected to slow down this year as central banks in some major economies raise interest rates aggressively to deal with inflation.
As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and the consumption attitude of American consumers tends to be more cautious, the possibility of the US economy entering recession this year is increasing.
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