Trade Balance (% GDP)

US goods and services trade balance as a percentage of nominal GDP. The US has run a continuous trade deficit since 1975, currently around -3% of GDP. A widening deficit reflects strong domestic demand, dollar strength, and offshoring — and drives the political economy of tariff policy.

This indicator is computed by MacroLab from two FRED series: BOPGSTB divided by GDP, scaled by ÷ 10. Both input series are sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database.