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A dock worker in Miami
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The US trade deficit reached its highest level in more than 14 years in August.
Compared to the previous month, it increased by almost six percent to $ 67.1 billion.
This was announced by the Department of Commerce in Washington.
The last time the US had a larger deficit was in August 2006. Analysts had expected an average deficit of $ 66.2 billion.
The imports rose in the previous month by 3.2 percent to 239 billion dollars (203 billion euros).
The export increase was only 2.2 percent (to 171.9 billion dollars).
Above all, consumer goods, intermediate goods for the pharmaceutical industry and cars were imported.
Exported primarily industrial machinery and agricultural products - sales of soy abroad alone rose a billion dollars compared to July.
The United States is a typical net importer.
They can afford this luxury because foreign countries are constantly providing them with credit.
The largest foreign lenders in the United States are China and Japan.
Apart from the US Federal Reserve, they hold the largest holdings of US government bonds.
The deficit in trade with China decreased mainly due to increased exports from the USA to the People's Republic.
In trade with Germany and Japan, on the other hand, the deficit increased.
The trade deficit had already increased by 19 percent in July compared to the previous month.
Corona neutralizes Trump's China agreement
In order to reduce the trade deficit with China, US President Donald Trump signed an agreement with Beijing in January.
In it, China committed itself to significantly more imports from the USA.
However, the effects of this agreement have been exceeded by the dislocations of the coronavirus pandemic.
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bah / dpa / AFP
