Reply #48

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-10/trade-gap-in-u-s-widens-more-than-forecast-on-record-imports.html

The gap grew 14 percent to $51.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported in Washington today. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an increase to $50 billion. A 5.2 percent jump in imports, the biggest in more than a year, swamped the 2.9 percent gain in exports, which also reached a record.
The pickup in the value of imports reflected higher fuel prices and a bounce back in shipments from China following the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations amid increasing consumer spending. Sales by American companies to counterparts in Mexico, the European Union and South Korea reached the highest ever, giving no indication of a slowdown in global demand.
“It’s hard to get nervous that imports are rising,” said Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. “It does suggest that consumer demand is strong.”
Maki said exports “don’t suggest the slowdown in Europe is having a dramatic effect on growth” in the U.S.