The trade deficit widened to $78.8 billion in July from a revised $73 billion in June, according to the Commerce Department. Economists had expected the trade deficit to widen to $79 billion from $73.1 billion the previous month.
Although the trade deficit in July was slightly smaller than expected, it was the largest since reaching $81.2 billion in June 2022.
Economist Matthew Martin estimates that trade data is mixed and some contraction in the deficit is expected for the rest of the quarter, but that would still leave net trade down 0.4 percentage points from third-quarter GDP growth.
The increase in the size of the trade deficit came as the value of imports rose 2.1 percent to $345.4 billion in July, after increasing 0.7 percent to $338.3 billion in June.
