With the release of the August 2014 US International Trade in Goods and Services report by the Department of Commerce’s US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, US exports of goods and services increased slightly by 0.2 percent in August 2014 to $198.5 billion since July 2014, while imports increased by 0.1 percent to $238.6 billion during the same period.
August exports of goods and services were the highest on record, driven by record-high exports of capital goods, consumer goods, petroleum, transport services, other business services, and charges for the use of intellectual property.
In August 2014, the monthly US goods and services trade deficit improved by 0.5 percent to $40.1 billion when compared to July 2014. However, the year-to-date August 2014 deficit has worsened by 4.2 percent to $335.2 billion from $321.7 billion during the same period of last year.
US goods and services exports year-to-date through the eighth month of 2014 were up 3.2 percent or $48.7 billion from the same period of 2013 to reach $1.56 trillion.