Trade Has a Recent History of Dragging US GDP Down
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I’m Ben Holland, an economics editor in Washington. Today we’re looking at trade and GDP. Send us feedback and tips to ecodaily@bloomberg.net. And if you aren’t yet signed up to receive this newsletter, you can do so here.
The US economy began 2025 with a contraction — the first since 2022 — driven almost entirely by trade. US businesses rushed to frontload imports before President Trump’s tariffs kicked in; the external deficit ballooned as a result; and that counts as a drag, the way GDP is calculated.