Number: RL30534
Title: America's Growing Current Account Deficit: Its Cause and What It Means for the Economy
Authors: Marc Labonte and Gail E. Makinen, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: A noticeable phenomenon of the 1980s was the growth in the U.S. trade deficit to record proportions. From a slight surplus in 1980 and 1981, the trade deficit grew to a record 2.5% of GDP in 1986. The trade deficit then declined to a low of about 0.2% of GDP in 1991. It then began to rise, reaching a record high of 3.9% of GDP in 2000, the last full year of the 1991-2001 expansion. The growth of the deficit was especially rapid over 1998-2000. During 1998, the deficit was 2.2% of GDP whereas in 1997 it was only 1.1% of GDP. The advent of the recession in 2001 and the subsequent 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 the National Income and Product Accounts.)
Pages: 11
Date: June 15, 2007