Trade Balance

The trade balance measures the difference in value between a country's exports and imports of goods and, in a broader version, goods and services, over a given period, with a positive balance called a trade surplus and a negative balance a trade deficit. Published monthly in the United States jointly by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the trade balance is one of the most closely watched components of a country's external accounts and directly affects the calculation of GDP, since net exports (exports minus imports) enter directly into the standard expenditure-based GDP formula.