Akhir 11, 1432 / March 16, 2011, SPA -- The U.S. deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade fell in the fourth quarter of 2010 to the lowest level in a year as U.S. businesses sold more industrial supplies, chemicals, and farm products, the government reported Wednesday. The current-account trade deficit fell 9.7 percent to $113.3 billion in the October-December period, the Commerce Department said. It was the smallest quarterly deficit since the end of 2009. While the fourth-quarter deficit shrank, economists expect that the first-quarter deficit will widen significantly due to soaring oil prices. The devastating earthquake in Japan is expected to have a modest impact on trade this year, likely lowering imports from Japan temporarily while increasing U.S. exports of goods needed in the reconstruction effort. The current account is the broadest measure of foreign trade because it adds investment flows and foreign aid to the traditional measure of goods and services. For all of 2010, the current-account deficit rose to $233.3 billion, a 24.3 percent increase from the previous year and the highest annual deficit in two years. The 2009 deficit had fallen to $216.1 billion, the smallest level in a decade, as the deep recession in the United States limited demand for imported goods. The 2010 current-account deficit was 3.2 percent of the country's total economy, up from 2.7 percent in 2009 but well below the record of 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2006, when the deficit surged to a record high of $802.6 billion. Economists closely watch the size of the current-account deficit because it represents the amount of money the United States transfers to foreign governments, companies, and investors.
