Visual Essay

A Look at the U.S. International Transactions

First Quarter 2025

By Elliot Berg and David Stein  |  July 17, 2025

This article highlights statistics on the U.S. International Transactions Accounts and the current-account deficit, which reflects the combined balances on trade in goods and services and income flows between U.S. residents and residents of other countries. These statistics are published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) each quarter. Detailed statistics for U.S. international transactions and a description of the estimation methods are available on the BEA website. For the statistics, see “International Transactions” in BEA's Interactive Data Application. For the methods, see U.S. International Economic Accounts: Concepts and Methods.

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• The current-account deficit widened by $138.2 billion, or 44.3 percent, to $450.2 billion in the first quarter of 2025.
• The first-quarter widening of the current-account deficit reflected an expanded deficit on goods.¹

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• The first-quarter deficit was 6.0 percent of current-dollar gross domestic product, up from 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

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• Exports of goods and services to, and income received from, foreign residents decreased $3.9 billion to $1.24 trillion in the first quarter.
• Imports of goods and services from, and income paid to, foreign residents increased $134.3 billion to $1.69 trillion.

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• The decrease in exports of goods and services and income receipts was the result of mostly offsetting changes, led by a decrease in primary income receipts and an increase in goods exports.
• The increase in imports of goods and services and income payments was driven by goods imports and was partly offset by a decrease in primary income payments.

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• Exports of goods increased $21.1 billion, or 4.1 percent.
• The increase in exports was led by capital goods, mainly civilian aircraft and computer accessories, peripherals, and parts.

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• Imports of goods increased $158.2 billion, or 18.7 percent.
• The increase in imports was led by nonmonetary gold and consumer goods, mostly pharmaceuticals (see “Additional Information” for a definition of nonmonetary gold under “Goods”).

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• Exports of services decreased $4.4 billion, or 1.5 percent.
• The decrease was led by government goods and services, travel, and “other business services,” mainly professional and management consulting services.

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• Imports of services decreased $1.8 billion, or 0.8 percent.
• The decrease mainly reflected a decrease in charges for the use of intellectual property.

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• Primary income receipts decreased $22.9 billion, or 6.1 percent.
• The decrease was driven by a decrease in direct investment income, mostly earnings.

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• Primary income payments decreased $13.7 billion, or 3.6 percent.
• The decrease was driven by a decrease in direct investment income, mostly earnings.

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• Secondary income payments decreased $8.4 billion, or 7.6 percent.
• The decrease was driven by a decrease in international cooperation and was partly offset by an increase in private transfer payments, mostly fines and penalties.

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• Capital-transfer receipts were $8.9 billion, reflecting receipts from foreign insurance companies for losses from wildfires in Southern California. Receipts in the fourth quarter of 2024 reflect losses from Hurricane Milton.
• Capital-transfer payments increased $0.5 billion to $2.0 billion, reflecting an increase in infrastructure grants.

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• Total transactions in financial assets were $524.9 billion in the first quarter, representing continued net U.S. acquisition of assets since the fourth quarter of 2022.
• Transactions increased all categories of investment assets, led by “other investment assets,” mostly short-term loans.

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• Total transactions in liabilities were $843.7 billion in the first quarter, representing continued net U.S. incurrence of liabilities since the fourth quarter of 2022.
• Transactions increased all categories of investment liabilities, led by portfolio investment liabilities, mostly long-term debt securities, and “other investment liabilities,” mainly short-term deposits and loans.

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• The statistical discrepancy, shown as the difference between net financial transactions and the balance on the current and capital accounts, was $143.8 billion in the first quarter, following a revised −$48.7 billion in the fourth quarter.²

With this release of the International Transactions Accounts, BEA has incorporated newly available and revised source data and recalculated seasonal and trading-day adjustments beginning with 2018. A summary of the newly available and revised source data is available in table 1. Additional information on the revisions will be available in “Annual Update of the U.S. International Transactions Accounts” in the Survey of Current Business later in July 2025.