U.S. Trade Balance: Services

## What this measures

The value of services the United States sold abroad in a month (travel, transport, finance, software, licensing, business services) minus the services it bought, in billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted.

## Why it matters

The U.S. runs a surplus in services, which offsets part of the goods deficit. It is where American strengths in finance, technology and intellectual property show up in the trade accounts.

## How to read it

Above zero is a surplus. Read it with the goods balance: the total trade balance is the two added together. Travel and transport services fell sharply in 2020 and recovered after.

## What it does not say

Services trade is harder to measure than goods and is estimated from surveys, so it is revised more. It does not show which countries or which industries.

## Source

U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services (FT-900), series BOPSTB. Palanor pulls it from the FRED API (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) nightly. Works of the U.S. government are in the public domain.