The United States deficit in its foreign trade in goods and services soared 27% in 2021 compared to the previous year and stood at 859.1 billion dollars, in full recovery of the economy after the recession caused by covid-19.
In the last month of the year, the deficit rose 1.8% compared to November and stood at 80.7 billion dollars, coinciding with the Christmas shopping season, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported on Tuesday. ).
The value of US exports rose by $394.1 billion in the whole of 2021 to $2.528 trillion, while that of imports rose even more, by $576.5 billion to $3.387 trillion.
The deficit in the trade balance throughout last year was determined by the great weight of goods, whose negative balance increased by 18.3% compared to 2020, while the surplus that the US traditionally registers in services was down 5.6%.
The US trade deficit represented 3.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year, five-tenths more than the 3.2% it represented in 2020.
In 2021, the trade deficit with China, very politically sensitive in the US, rose 45,000 million dollars and reached a value of 355,300 million.
The trade balance with the European Union was also negative for the North American country, which increased its annual deficit by 35.4 billion dollars to 219.6 billion.
By sectors, sales of industrial material and supplies by the United States to the rest of the world increased by 169.6 billion, a figure practically identical to the rise in imports for this same concept: 169.7 billion.
This segment includes purchases and sales of oil, which experienced a rise of 19.9 billion in exports and 56.3 billion in imports over the past year, that is, the US sold and bought more crude from the rest of the world than in 2020.
As for consumer goods, one of the main causes of the deficit in the US trade balance, the country imported an additional value of 117.5 billion dollars, while exporting 47.3 billion more than in the previous year.
In 2021, the world’s largest economy sold more than it bought to South and Central America ($53.6 billion surpluses), Hong Kong ($25.8 billion), the Netherlands ($18.2 billion), and Brazil ($15.6 billion).
In contrast, it bought more than it sold, in addition to the aforementioned China and the European Union, Mexico (108.2 billion trade deficit), Japan (60.2 billion), and Canada (49.5 billion).
Regarding the month of December, the value of US exports advanced a slight 1.5% compared to the previous month, to 228,100 million dollars; while that of imports grew practically the same, 1.6%, reaching 308.9 billion dollars.
The increase in the trade deficit occurred in the context of the annual growth of the economy of 5.7%, the highest record in 37 years, according to data published in January by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA, for its acronym in English). .
During the fourth quarter of last year, the Gross Domestic Product accelerated, even more, registering an increase of 6.9% year-on-year and 1.7% compared to the previous quarter.