WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in September to the lowest level in almost two years as exports climbed to a record.
The narrower trade deficit could lead the government to revise its July-September economic growth estimate slightly higher than the 2 percent annual rate reported last month. That’s because U.S. companies earned more from overseas sales, while consumers and businesses spent less on foreign products.
The deficit narrowed to $41.5 billion in September, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That is 5.1 percent below the August deficit and the smallest imbalance since December 2010.
Growing demand from emerging markets in South and Central America may be helping to overcome a slowdown in Europe and China. At the same time, imports also climbed as U.S consumers are beginning to spend more as the job market stabilizes.
“The outlook in emerging markets is stronger than in Europe, and that’s where we would expect to see export growth,” said Jeremy Lawson, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York. “Consumer goods imports were strong. Some of that may be in preparation for holiday shopping. The picture is getting better there.”
Exports climbed 3.1 percent to an all-time high of $187 billion. That followed two monthly declines and reflected stronger sales of commercial aircraft, heavy machinery and farm goods.
Imports rose 1.5 percent to $228.5 billion. An increase in consumer goods drove the gain, including shipments of the new Apple iPhone5. High- er oil prices also contributed to the gain.
Economists cautioned that the increase in exports may only be temporary. One reason is soybean exports rose 32 percent in September from August, in part because of a jump in prices linked to the summer drought.
“More generally, export growth has slowed by more than import growth as the weak global backdrop has taken its toll,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “So while these data may boost thirdquarter ... growth by a couple of tenths of a percent, further ahead net exports may not add anything to growth.”
Europe’s debt crisis and slower global growth in emerging markets had weakened demand for U.S. goods overseas in the previous months. That subtracted from economic growth in the third quarter.
Exports to the 27-nation European Union were unchanged in September from August. Exports to Latin America grew 4.2 percent, although exports to Brazil declined. Brazil is South America’s biggest economy.
So far this year, the U.S. deficit is running at an annual rate of $554 billion, slightly below last year’s $559.9 billion imbalance.
The U.S. deficit with China increased to $29.1 billion in September. It is running 6.8 percent ahead of last year’s record pace. America’s deficit with China last year was the highest imbalance ever recorded with a single country.
The widening trade gap with China has heightened trade tensions between the two countries. Many have complained that China’s trade practices are unfair. American manufacturers say China has kept the yuan undervalued against the U.S. dollar. A lower valued yuan makes Chinese goods cheaper for U.S. consumers and American products more expensive in China.
The Obama administration has lobbied China to move more quickly to allow the yuan to rise in value. But it has refused to cite China as a currency manipulator.
Information for this article was contributed by Martin Crutsinger of The Associated Press, and Alex Kowalski and Chris Middleton of Bloomberg News.
Business, Pages 27 on 11/09/2012