The trade balance measures the difference in value between a country's exports and imports of goods and, in a broader version, goods and services, over a given period, with a positive balance called a trade surplus and a negative balance a trade deficit. Published monthly in the United States jointly by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the trade balance is one of the most closely watched components of a country's external accounts and directly affects the calculation of GDP, since net exports (exports minus imports) enter directly into the standard expenditure-based GDP formula.
Facts
Classification
Release FrequencySourced to the subject's own account Sources
1. Balance of trade (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia, "Balance of trade", lead section
Balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports of goods over a certain time period. Sometimes, trade in services is also included in the balance of trade but the official IMF definition only considers goods. The balance of trade measures a flow variable of exports and imports over a given period of time.
Introduction, frequency
Published monthly in the United States jointly by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the trade balance is one of the most closely watched components of a country's external accounts and directly affects the calculation of GDP, since net exports (exports minus imports) enter directly into the standard expenditure-based GDP formula.
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