Trade deficit reaches record high of almost $950 billion

The trade deficit reached a new record high in 2022 of $948.1 billion, according to data released by the Commerce Department. This figure represents an increase of 12.2% over last year. The rise was seen because the nation's citizens continued to buy record volumes of foreign products, as reported in The New York Times. According to the report, the gap between goods and services has grown by $103 billion since 2021.

Specifically, exports increased by 17.7% in 2022, reaching $3 trillion. In contrast, imports increased to $4 trillion, 16.3% higher than in 2021.

As detailed in The New York Times, exports experienced a big rise during 2022 because of a sharp increase in energy shipments from the nation overseas. Much of this came as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine. This conflict caused Europe to halt many economic agreements with the Putin-led country.

This was not the only cause of the increase in U.S. exports. The recovery of the nation's travel sector after the pandemic also contributed to the rise.

U. S.-China trade relations continued to grow. This comes despite all the tensions between the two countries, aggravated this weekend after the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon flying over American territory. Thus, highlights NYT, the U.S. trade deficit with China grew to $382.9 billion. This figure is high, though it did not surpass previous records.