economies - bush, blair and deficits
WORKERS, FEB 2005 ISSUE
The US trade deficit for November was a record $60.3 billion (£32 billion), up from October's $56 billion. Oil imports were a record $13.4 billion. The USA's trade deficit total for the first eleven months of 2004 was $561 billion, far more than the record $496 billion for the whole of 2003. The US surplus on agricultural goods, a constant since 1959, has vanished.
This trade deficit adds to the stresses in the economy caused by the US government's record budget deficit of $400 billion.
• Britain's trade deficit is also growing, up from £5.8 billion in the second quarter of 2004 to £8.8 billion in the third. The City in its wisdom had forecast £6.3 billion. The deficit on our trade with the other European Union countries was £6.4 billion, up from £5.7 billion in the previous quarter. The combined deficit for October and November was £9.6 billion.