We expect an advance October goods trade deficit of $104.5bn, down from $108.7bn in September but above the Q3 average of $102.0bn. Trend in the deficit is for widening and a now settled strike at Boeing will cause weakness in October aircraft exports.
September’s wider deficit corrected a below trend deficit of $94.8bn in August. The average of the two was $101.5bn, similar to July’s 102.9bn.
In October we expect exports to be unchanged after a 2.0% September decline that followed a 2.9% August increase. Weakness in aircraft will prevent exports moving higher. We expect imports to fall by 1.5% after a sharp 4.0% September increase followed a 1.4% decline in August.