U.S. International Trade Deficit Shrinks by 4.9%

WASHINGTON — The U.S. international trade deficit was $50.1 billion for April, a 4.9% drop from the revised $52.6 billion deficit for March, originally reported as $51.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The 4.9% decrease was the largest since February when the deficit fell 14.2% from the January level.

The April deficit was higher than the median $49.5 billion deficit for the month estimated by economists polled by Thomson Reuters, and resulted from total exports of $182.9 billion and imports of $233.0 billion.

The April deficit of $50.1 billion was higher than the $43.6 billion deficit reported for the same month in 2011.

April exports of $182.9 billion were $1.5 billion, or 0.8%, lower than the previous month’s revised level of $184.4 billion, originally reported as $186.8 billion.

Imports of $233 billion were $4.1 billion, or 1.7%, lower than the revised March level of $237.1 billion, originally reported as $238.6 billion.

In another news release, the Labor Department published revised statistics on both U.S. trade in goods and U.S. trade in services for January 2009 to March 2012.

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