The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis have reported that the goods and services deficit in March 2025 was $140.5 billion, an increase of $17.3 billion from February's revised figure of $123.2 billion.
Exports for March reached $278.5 billion, which is an increase of $0.5 billion compared to February, while imports rose by $17.8 billion to total $419.0 billion. The rise in the goods and services deficit is attributed to a growth in the goods deficit by $16.5 billion, reaching $163.5 billion, and a reduction in the services surplus by $0.8 billion to $23.0 billion.
Over the year-to-date period, there has been a 92.6 percent increase in the goods and services deficit compared to the same timeframe in 2024, with exports up by 5.2 percent or $41.1 billion and imports rising by 23.3 percent or $230.7 billion.
The three-month moving averages show that for the period ending in March, the average goods and services deficit grew by $14.1 billion to reach $131.4 billion.
For exports, there was a modest increase of goods amounting to $1.3 billion totaling $183.2 billion for March; however, exports of services saw a decline of $0.9 billion down to $95.2 billion.
On the import side, goods saw an increase of $17.8 billion reaching a total of $346.8 billion for March while imports of services slightly decreased by $0.1 billion totaling at $72.2 billion.
Revisions made to February data include minor downward adjustments for both exports and imports of goods and services.
Surpluses were noted with countries such as Netherlands ($4.5), South and Central America ($3.2), while deficits were recorded with regions including European Union ($48.3) and China ($24.8).
Additionally, recent changes in country name references have been updated to align with international standards: "Congo (Brazzaville)" is now "Congo" and "Congo (Kinshasa)" is now "Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Issues arising from Canada Border Services Agency's new accounting system have impacted U.S.-Canada trade data collection since September 2024 through February 2025 due to delays experienced by Canadian importers.
Upcoming updates on June 5, 2025 will see revisions made to trade statistics dating back several years as part of annual revisions aimed at incorporating new data sources and corrections.
For further information or inquiries regarding this release, contact details are provided for the Census Bureau's Economic Indicators Division.