The June trade deficit came in at $73.3bn, and the year-to-date gap is $189.3bn smaller than last year because exports rose 11.7 percent while imports rose 0.4
One hundred and eighty nine point three billion dollars. That is how much smaller the goods and services deficit is so far in 2026 than in the same period of 2025, a fall of 33.8 percent, and the composition of it is the part worth holding onto: exports are up $198.3bn, or 11.7 percent, while imports are up $9.0bn, or 0.4 percent.
The monthly figure released on Tuesday morning is less impressive than that. The June deficit was $73.3bn, down $4.4bn from a revised $77.6bn in May. It narrowed because both sides fell and imports fell harder. Exports were $314.7bn, down $2.9bn on the month. Imports were $388.0bn, down $7.3bn.
Within that, the goods deficit narrowed $3.9bn to $102.1bn and the services surplus widened $0.5bn to $28.8bn.
What moved
On the export side, industrial supplies and materials fell $3.3bn. Crude oil fell $5.7bn and fuel oil $1.6bn, while nonmonetary gold rose $3.4bn. Capital goods fell $0.6bn, with computers down $1.1bn. Services exports rose $1.1bn to $107.8bn, helped by financial services and travel.
On the import side, capital goods fell $2.1bn, with computers down $3.0bn and telecommunications equipment up $1.1bn. Consumer goods fell $2.1bn, of which pharmaceutical preparations accounted for $1.9bn. Services imports rose $0.6bn to $79.0bn.
The data are adjusted for seasonality and not for prices, so none of those lines separates a change in what was shipped from a change in what it cost.
The averages disagree
The three-month moving average is the reason to be careful with the monthly print. The average goods and services deficit for the three months ending in June rose $5.6bn, to $68.5bn. Average exports fell $1.3bn to $320.2bn. Average imports rose $4.2bn to $388.7bn.
Measured against the same three months of 2025, the average deficit is $6.6bn wider, with average imports up $42.1bn and average exports up $35.6bn.
So the year-to-date total and the recent trend are moving in opposite directions, and both are in the same release.
One note on this site's own earlier coverage. The advance goods deficit for June, reported here on 28 July at $101.5bn, came from the advance economic indicators report, which is a separate release from this one. The $102.1bn goods deficit above is the figure in Tuesday's release. Whether the two are computed on the same basis is not something this release states, so the difference between them should not be read as a revision.
The next release is on 3 September.
