The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the United States’ goods and services trade deficit was $52.8 billion in September 2025, a decrease of $6.4 billion from August’s revised figure of $59.3 billion.
Exports for September reached $289.3 billion, up by $8.4 billion compared to August, while imports totaled $342.1 billion, an increase of $1.9 billion over the previous month.
The decline in the overall trade deficit was due to a reduction in the goods deficit by $7.1 billion to $79.0 billion and a decrease in the services surplus by $0.6 billion to $26.2 billion.
Over the first nine months of 2025, the cumulative goods and services deficit increased by 17.2 percent, or $112.6 billion, compared to the same period in 2024. Exports rose by 5.2 percent ($125.1 billion), while imports grew by 7.7 percent ($237.7 billion).
The three-month moving average for the trade deficit fell by $2.1 billion to an average of $63.1 billion for July through September 2025 compared with previous periods.
Goods exports increased notably in industrial supplies and materials (up $7.2 billion), particularly nonmonetary gold (up $6.1 billion), as well as consumer goods (up $4.1 billion) such as pharmaceutical preparations (up $3.1 billion). Capital goods exports decreased by $3.3 billion, including a drop in computers (down $2.3 billion).
Regarding gold statistics, "When incorporating the statistics in this release into BEA’s National Economic Accounts, including Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, BEA replaces exports and imports of nonmonetary gold with an adjustment calculated as the difference between domestic production and industrial use of gold." The Bureau provides further details on its website about how these adjustments are made.
Exports of services declined slightly by $0.4 billion to total $101.7 billion in September; travel and transport were down while financial services saw a modest increase.
On the import side, goods imports climbed by $1.7 billion to reach $266.6 billion in September—consumer goods led this rise with an increase of $10.2 billion driven largely by pharmaceutical preparations (up $12.9 billion). Imports also included increases in nonmonetary gold but decreases in crude oil and capital goods such as computers and electric apparatus.
Imports of services went up marginally by $0.3 billion to reach a total of $75.5 billion for September; increases were noted mainly in transport and financial services.
In real terms (2017 dollars), the real goods deficit narrowed by 5.6 percent ($4.7 billion) to stand at $79 million for September compared with nominal changes.
There were revisions made to August data: exports of goods were revised downward slightly while exports of services were revised upward; imports showed mixed revisions with slight increases for goods but decreases for services.
Trade balances with specific countries shifted during September: The balance with Switzerland moved from a small deficit to a surplus due mainly to higher exports; meanwhile, deficits widened significantly with Ireland due mostly to increased imports from that country but narrowed with China because U.S imports from China fell sharply.
All figures cited are seasonally adjusted unless otherwise noted and are available along with additional detail on both Census Bureau and BEA websites:
www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/current_press_release/index.html
www.bea.gov/data/intl-trade-investment/international-trade-goods-and-services
Due to recent federal funding lapses that affected government operations, future release dates for these reports will be announced once schedules are updated.
"We are consulting with data suppliers to determine the availability of data used to produce our economic indicators," according to officials from both agencies.