what was the 2007 trade deficit with china and overall (actual) It seems that there are two separate parts to this question. The first question relates to the US Budget Deficit (how much the US Government's spending exceeds its income). The second part relates to the US Trade Deficit (how much the value of US imports exceed the value of US exports).
To answer the first part of the question, we can go to the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve for statistics:
The total National Debt as at the end of September 2006 (the latest month for which data is available) was approximately USD 8.5 trillion. (Source 1)
Of that total, just over half (USD 4.4 trillion) is held by other government agencies (yes, despite the Administration's scare tactics on the subject, there really is a colossal Social Security nest egg).
The remaining USD 4.1 trillion is privately held. Of that amount, USD 2.1 trillion is held by foreign individuals & governments.
So, to restate in percentage terms, the different classes of investors are:
US Federal Government: 52%
US State & Private: 23%
Foreign Government & Private: 25%
The main foreign investors are (numbers rounded) (Source 2):
Japan (USD 640 billion)(8%)
China (USD 340 billion)(4%)
United Kingdom (USD 210 billion)(2.5%)
Oil Exporting Countries hold, collectively, USD 100 billion (1%) (Source 3)
These percentages are not only concerning in their own right but also because of the upward trend in foreign ownership. (They look even scarier if you choose to exclude the USD 4.4 trillion that the Federal Government essentially borrows from itself!)
Note also that the same table (Source 2) shows that USD 1.1 trillion of the total USD 2.1 trillion foreign-held is in foreign official hands (meaning national central banks).
Now for the second question, on the trade deficit.
For this we need to go to the US Census Bureau: Foreign Trade Statistics (Source 4)
This report, which goes up to Nov 2006, shows that, for the first eleven months of 2006, the seasonally adjusted trade deficit in Goods & Services was USD 701.6 billion (vs. 652.6 billion for the same period in 2005). Breaking that number down into Goods & Services, we see that the problem is largely the Goods side of the equation: in Nov 2006, Services ran a Year-To-Date surplus of USD 65.3 billion (vs. 60 billion for the same period in 2005).
Unfortunately, this report only provides national breakdowns of bilateral trade balances in Goods on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
For comparison, the seasonally adjusted Goods trade deficits 2006 YTD were USD 766.9 billion (vs. USD 712.5 billion in 2005) (Source (5) Exhibit 5) whereas the unadjusted 2006 YTD numbers were USD 774.6 billion (vs. USD 718.9 billion in 2005). (Source (5) Exhibit 12)
The breakdown of the unadjusted bilateral numbers (Source (5) Exhibit 14) shows the big beneficiaries are:
China : USD 213.5 billion (28%)
EU : USD 107.6 billion (14%)
Japan : USD 81.0 billion (10%)
Canada : USD 67.5 billion (9%)
Mexico : USD 59.0 billion (8%)
Again, to be clear, the above numbers are for the eleven months up to November 2006. The annual numbers will be available in February 2007. I look forward to someone giving me a % answer to this question - all I know is that it is a lot higher than is a healthy %. |
