The US trade deficit grew in May to its widest since March 2025, as imports increased and exports fell, government data showed Tuesday.
The goods and services deficit widened 42% sequentially to $77.59 billion in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The consensus was for a deficit of $78.4 billion in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.
"Surging imports and a rare decline in exports spiked the US trade deficit to its highest level in more than a year," BMO Capital Markets Senior Economist Sal Guatieri said in a note. "Despite tariffs, the trade deficit has returned to levels of late 2024, before importers began front-loading purchases, suggesting little overall progress in shrinking the trade gap."
Imports rose 3.3% to $395.26 billion in May, also the highest level since March 2025. Exports dropped 3.2% to $317.68 billion amid declines across industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods, official data showed.
The exports and imports of services were the highest on record in May, according to the report.
The US ran a $19.39 billion deficit in goods trade with Taiwan in May, compared with a $19.34 billion gap the month prior. The deficit with China grew to $14.47 billion from $12.02 billion. The goods trade deficit with the European Union rose to $9.32 billion from April's $7.19 billion. The shortfall with Vietnam swelled to $20.58 billion from $19.3 billion.
In the year through May, the goods and services deficit decreased about 41% from a year earlier, official data showed.
"The large widening in the trade gap suggests some downside risk to our second-quarter real (gross domestic product) growth call of 2.1% annualized," Guatieri said.
