Americaâs Growing Current Account Deficit: Its Cause and What It Means for the Economy (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised June 15, 2007 |
| Report Number |
RL30534 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Marc Labonte and Gail E. Makinen, Government and Finance Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
A noticeable phenomenon of the 1980s was the growth in the U.S. trade deficitto record proportions. From a slight surplus in 1980 and 1981, the trade deficit grewto a record 2.5% of GDP in 1986. The trade deficit then declined to a low of about0.2% of GDP in 1991. It then began to rise, reaching a record high of 3.9% of GDPin 2000, the last full year of the 1991-2001 expansion. The growth of the deficit wasespecially rapid over 1998-2000. During 1998, the deficit was 2.2% of GDP whereasin 1997 it was only 1.1% of GDP. The advent of the recession in 2001 and thesubsequent recovery and expansion did not produce a decline in the trade deficit.Rather it continued to rise, reaching 5.6% of GDP during 2005 and 5.4% in 2006.(In all of the computations above, exports, imports, the difference between the two,and GDP are measured in 2000 dollars. All the trade data are taken from theNational Income and Product Accounts.)
