News - National
Current account deficit dips to $98.8 billion
Posted: Sep 16, 2009 6:59 AM by Associated Press
The deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade shrank in the spring to the lowest level in relation to the total economy in 18 years, another dramatic sign of how much the recession had reduced America's appetite for foreign goods.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday the deficit in the current account dropped to $98.8 billion in the April-June quarter. That represented 2.8 percent of the total economy as measured by the gross domestic product, the smallest percentage since the first quarter of 1991.
The deficit was down 5.4 percent from the first quarter revised total of $104.5 billion. Analysts had been forecasting a second quarter deficit of $92 billion.
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