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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
International Finance Discussion Papers
Number 892, April 2007 --- Screen Reader Version*

U.S. External Adjustment: Is It Disorderly? Is It Unique? Will It Disrupt the Rest of the World?

Steven B. Kamin, Trevor A. Reeve, and Nathan Sheets^**

NOTE: International Finance Discussion Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. References in publications to International Finance Discussion Papers (other than an acknowledgment that the writer has had access to unpublished material) should be cleared with the author or authors. Recent IFDPs are available on the Web at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/. This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network electronic library at http://www.ssrn.com/.

Abstract:

In recent years, a number of studies have analyzed the experiences of a broad range of industrial economies during periods when their current account deficits have narrowed. Such studies identified systematic aspects of external adjustment, but it is unclear how good a guide the experience of other countries may be to the effects of a future narrowing of the U.S. external imbalance. In contrast, this paper focuses in depth on the historical experience of external adjustment in the United States. Using data from the past thirty-five years, we compare economic performance in episodes during which the U.S. trade balance deteriorated and episodes during which it adjusted. We find trade balance adjustment to have been generally benign: U.S. real GDP growth tended to fall, but not to a statistically significant extent; housing construction slumped; inflation generally rose modestly; and although nominal interest rates tended to rise, real interest rates fell. The paper then compares these outcomes to those in foreign industrial economies. We find that the economic performance of the United States during periods of external adjustment is remarkably similar to the foreign experience. Finally, we also examine the performance of the foreign industrial economies during the periods of U.S. deterioration and adjustment. Contrary to concerns that U.S. adjustment will prove injurious to foreign economies, our analysis suggests that the foreign economies fared reasonably well during past periods when the U.S. trade deficit narrowed: the growth of domestic demand and real GDP abroad generally strengthened during such episodes, although inflation and interest rates tended to rise as well.

Keywords: current account deficit, trade deficit, exchange rate adjustment, disorderly correction.

JEL classification: F32, F41.

I.  Introduction and Summary

Observers have raised concerns that a future adjustment of the U.S. current account deficit driven by exchange rate depreciation may prove "disorderly"' for financial markets and U.S. economic performance. (See, inter alia, Eichengreen, 2004, Roubini and Setser, 2005, and Edwards, 2005.) In particular, it has been suggested that a fall in the dollar could boost interest rates, depress stock prices, and push the economy into recession. Such developments, it is argued, could outweigh the stimulus provided by a falling dollar via a rise in net exports, particularly if it took some time for net exports to respond.

How likely is the disorderly adjustment scenario to arise in practice? One approach to answering this question has been to examine the record of past external adjustments in industrial economies. By and large, such studies suggest that the experience of external adjustment has been reasonably benign, and that exchange rate changes associated with adjustment have not led to economic distress. Freund (2005) found, in 25 episodes of current account adjustment in industrial economies, indications of only moderate declines in GDP growth. Croke, Kamin, and Leduc (2006) revisited Freund's sample and found that in episodes where real exchange rates depreciated, growth was maintained; in episodes where real exchange rates did not depreciate, growth tended to decline, but that decline likely was the cause rather than the effect of current account adjustment. Freund and Warnock (2006) and Debelle and Galati (2005) come to similar conclusions, while Gagnon (2005) finds that currency crashes in industrial economies have generally led to lower, not higher, long-term interest rates. In contrast, Edwards (2005) presents results suggesting more disruptive effects of current account adjustment, but his methodology may not adequately control for the endogeneity of the current account with respect to growth.

These studies, for the most part, tend to undercut the view that a future U.S. external adjustment will be disruptive. Yet, it is generally acknowledged that owing to the size of its economy and of its external deficits, external adjustment in the United States may differ greatly from that in other industrial countries. The episodes studied in the above-mentioned papers include only one U.S. experience, the reduction of the trade deficit in the late 1980s, and accordingly any inferences drawn from them will be dominated by the experience of foreign economies.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the effects of external adjustment on macroeconomic performance while focusing more closely on the U.S. historical experience. By so doing, we hope to make our findings as relevant as possible to a future U.S. adjustment. Using data from the past thirty-five years, this paper compares the economic performance of the U.S. economy during three episodes in which the U.S. nominal trade balance deteriorated significantly with economic performance in two episodes during which the trade balance adjusted. (Throughout this paper, we refer to a widening of the trade deficit as a "deterioration" and a narrowing of the trade deficit as an "adjustment.") The paper then examines the extent to which the behavior of key economic variables differed across the two types of episodes.¹

As a general statement, we find that the adjustment of the trade balance in these instances has been benign, occurring without financial crisis or significant economic upheaval. Nevertheless, the process of external adjustment has left a clear imprint on economic performance, with the following being some of the key features of the U.S. adjustment episodes:

• The real exchange value of the dollar has been roughly 13 percent weaker on average during periods of adjustment than during periods of deterioration.
• Real domestic demand has grown 2.6 percentage points more slowly during periods of trade balance adjustment than during periods of deterioration; most notably, growth of residential construction plunged at an annual rate of nearly 14 percentage points during adjustment periods.
• Slower domestic demand was offset in part by a substantial 1.6 percentage point rise in the contribution to GDP growth from net exports, as real exports surged and real imports decelerated.²
• On balance, real GDP growth was 1.1 percentage points slower during periods of external adjustment than during periods of deterioration, although this slowing is not statistically significant.
• Broad measures of inflation were generally higher during periods of external adjustment than during periods of deterioration. During adjustment, prices of tradeable goods appear to have risen relative to those of non-tradeable goods, thus supporting the process whereby exports rose and imports declined.
• Although nominal interest rates averaged a little higher during adjustment periods than during deterioration periods, real interest rates were lower during periods of adjustment.

These findings suggest that external adjustment in the United States, at least historically, has not been highly disruptive. Although domestic demand growth generally slowed during adjustment episodes, the effects on overall GDP growth were largely offset by an expansion of net exports.

Moreover, although our analysis is purely descriptive and does not address sources of shocks or directions of causality, it presents evidence that the weakening of domestic demand may not have owed to the external adjustment process itself. In the textbook case, exchange rate depreciation stimulates net exports and economic activity, thus pushing up real interest rates and curtailing domestic demand. Yet, we find that real interest rates declined during adjustment episodes. This lends support to an alternative possibility: autonomous declines in domestic demand may have led to lower real interest rates, declines in the dollar, and thus increases in net exports. That is, external adjustment may have been the effect rather than the cause of lower domestic demand and GDP growth.³ If this was the case, external adjustment would have played a stabilizing role, expanding net exports even as domestic demand weakened.

Our finding of relatively non-disruptive adjustment in the United States lines up well with the studies of adjustment, noted above, which draw primarily from the experiences of foreign industrial economies. To confirm that the U.S. and foreign industrial economies have responded similarly to the process of external adjustment, we identified periods of trade balance deterioration and adjustment in 20 OECD countries and, as we had for the United States, compared macroeconomic performance during the two types of episodes. By and large, we found the shifts in foreign real GDP growth and its components during transitions from external deterioration to adjustment to be remarkably similar to those in the United States: foreign GDP growth fell 1.1 percentage points as a 2.75 percentage point decline in domestic demand growth was offset by a 1.44 percentage point rise in the contribution of net exports to GDP growth. The foreign adjustment episodes did involve much less real exchange rate depreciation than in the United States, and foreign real interest rates rose rather than fell as in the United States. All told, however, we found little support for the view that the U.S. economy would exhibit a different--and perhaps more disorderly--response to external adjustment than other industrial economies.

Finally, in addition to raising concerns that a closing of the deficit would be disruptive to the U.S. economy, observers have also raised concerns about the effect of U.S. external adjustment on foreign economies. Lower U.S. trade deficits imply lower trade surpluses abroad, and contagion to foreign financial markets from disruptions in U.S. markets has also been highlighted as a risk. To shed some light on this concern, we extended the analyses described above to compare the macroeconomic performance of the foreign industrial economies during periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration and adjustment.

We found the performance of the foreign economies to be, in many respects, the mirror image of that of the U.S. economy. (This is not surprising, given our finding that the U.S. and foreign economies exhibit similar responses to their own external adjustment.) During periods of U.S. trade balance adjustment, the foreign economies exhibited (relative to periods of U.S. deterioration): higher growth of domestic demand and real GDP; weaker net exports; higher rates of inflation, with prices of non-tradeable goods rising relative to those of tradeables; and higher nominal and real interest rates. Some of these developments--in particular, the higher inflation, interest rates, and GDP growth--suggest that our trading partners likely were experiencing positive shocks to their domestic demand alongside the effects of slower U.S. demand for their products. In any event, the historical record suggests that U.S. external adjustment generally has not been injurious to our trading partners.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The next section sketches out the methodology that we have used in our work. Section III section compares the performance of the U.S. economy during adjustment and deterioration episodes, while Section IV replicates the same analysis for the foreign industrial economies. Section V addresses the performance of the foreign economies during U.S. deterioration and adjustment periods. The final section offers some conclusions.

II.  Methodology

Looking at the U.S. experience in recent decades, we identify three periods in which the trade balance on goods and services deteriorated significantly: 1975:Q3 to 1978:Q1, 1980:Q4 to 1987:Q2, and 1997:Q2 to 2005:Q4. (These are the blue regions in Figure 1.) Although these periods were identified judgmentally rather than through application of formal numerical criteria, they quite obviously correspond to peaks and troughs in the trade balance. (Also, we found our results were not sensitive to small changes in the dating of the deterioration and adjustment periods.) We focus on the trade balance because theory indicates that improvement in the trade balance is necessary for sustained external adjustment. Only if the trade deficit is substantially closed will the growth of the U.S. net external debt be reined in so that the ratio of debt to GDP stabilizes.⁴

As shown in Figure 1, during the first of these episodes of deterioration, the trade balance slipped from a surplus of 1 percent of GDP to a deficit of 2 percent. In the second episode, during the 1980s, the trade balance declined from about balance to a deficit of 3 percent of GDP. Finally, in the latest episode, the trade deficit has widened from just over 1 percent of GDP to about 6 percent of GDP since mid-1997.

We also define two periods of trade balance adjustment: 1978:Q2 to 1980:Q3 and 1987:Q3 to 1992:Q1 (the yellow regions in Figure 1). In the first of these episodes, the trade balance improved about 2 percent of GDP over 2 1/2 years. In the second episode, the trade balance improved 3 percent of GDP over 5 1/2 years.

Having identified these episodes, we compare the real growth rates of GDP expenditure components during periods when the trade balance has adjusted with the behavior when the trade balance has deteriorated. We replicate this analysis for each component's share of nominal GDP, for the growth rates of various categories of imports and exports, and for other key macroeconomic variables.

Specifically, as indicated in the equation below, we regress the growth rate (or change in the nominal GDP share) of a given variable (y) on dummy variables indicating periods of trade balance deterioration ($$D^{\text{deterioration}}$$), periods of trade balance adjustment ($$D^{\text{adjustment}}$$), and periods when the trade balance was little changed ($$D^{\text{other}}$$). ⁵The estimated coefficients on the dummy variables measure the average performance of that variable during periods of deterioration and periods of adjustment. This methodology is equivalent to comparing means of variables across the different types of episodes, but it facilitates tests of statistical significance and also provides a framework in which we can test the robustness of our results.⁶

$$y=\beta_{1}\ast D^{\text{deterioration}}+\beta_{2}\ast D^{\text{adjustment} }+\beta_{3}\ast D^{\text{other}}+\varepsilon$$

Our results are reported in Tables 1-3 and discussed in detail below. As a robustness check, we run an alternative specification that includes U.S. GDP growth as an additional control variable. The purpose of this specification is to control for effects of the business cycle in order to more clearly identify the effects of trade balance deterioration and adjustment. The results from these regressions are reported in Table 4 and are similar to our baseline results.

III.  Results for the U.S. Economy

GDP components

Table 1 focuses on the components of U.S. GDP. Column (1) summarizes the growth of real quantities of these components during periods of trade balance deterioration, column (2) draws on periods of adjustment, and column (3) presents the difference. Columns (4) through (6) present analogous calculations for changes in the shares of components in nominal GDP. Selected series are graphed in Figures 2 and 3.

Focusing first on column (1), it is apparent that the periods of trade balance deterioration enjoyed vigorous expansion as strong growth in domestic demand was only partially offset by a deterioration in net exports. Real GDP growth (line 1) averages 3 1/2 percent and domestic demand growth (line 2) averages over 4 percent. All of the major components of domestic demand grow solidly, but the 8.2 percent growth of total investment spending is notable and the 9.3 percent growth of residential investment is doubly so. Interestingly, real exports expand during these periods, averaging 3 1/2 percent growth, but imports grow over 10 percent. Accordingly, real net exports deteriorate, subtracting about 3/3 percentage point from GDP growth on average.

Turning to column (2), one would expect that adjustment of the trade balance would be associated with weaker domestic demand and stronger net exports, and this is confirmed by the data. During periods of adjustment, domestic demand growth averages only about 1 1/2 percent; as indicated in column (3), this represents a statistically significant slowing of 2.6 percentage points compared with periods of trade balance deterioration. All components of domestic demand weaken, but the slowing of residential investment is especially pronounced: its growth rate swings down an enormous 13.8 percentage points, to -4.4 percent, and its share of nominal GDP switches from rising nearly 0.3 percentage point a year during periods of deterioration (column 4) to declining about 0.4 percentage point a year during adjustment episodes (column 5).⁷ Housing is the foremost example of a non-traded good and, as such, its production would be expected to boom during periods of deterioration but to fall off during periods of adjustment (as shifts in relative prices redirect resources toward the production of tradables).

During periods of adjustment, a portion of the weakening in domestic demand growth is offset by a swing in the contribution from net exports to a positive 0.9 percentage point. Real export growth soars to 11 3/3 percent, 8 1/4 percentage points above its pace during the years of deterioration, and real import growth slows 9 percentage points to only about 1 percent annually.

On balance, real GDP growth averages only about 2 1/2 percentage points during periods of adjustment, about 1 percentage point slower than during periods of deterioration, although this difference falls short of statistical significance (t-value of 1.38). This result, while statistically insignificant, is surprising. In principle, if adjustment comes in response to a downward shock to the exchange rate, then higher net exports might be expected to offset weaker domestic demand, leaving GDP growth little changed--or even higher--on net. This issue will be discussed further below.

Another expectation we bring to external adjustment is that in response to real exchange rate depreciation, production of tradeable goods should perform more strongly than that of non-traded goods. Our findings provide only mixed confirmation of this prediction. Lines 13-15 present results for a breakdown of GDP into goods, services, and structures. The growth of structures GDP, which is non-traded, does indeed fall off sharply, by a statistically significant 4.2 percentage points. However, the growth of goods GDP, which is generally tradeable, also declines, by 1.1 percentage points (although this difference is not statistically significant). The growth of services GDP, which is generally considered to be non-traded, falls just 0.4 percentage point. Nonetheless, these results are likely clouded by the fact that some services are tradeable.

In an attempt to draw a finer line between tradeable and non-traded output, lines 11-12 present calculations based on data on U.S. GDP by industry.⁸ As is conventionally done, agriculture, mining, and manufacturing are classified as tradeable, whereas construction, utilities, wholesale and retail trade, and government are classified as non-traded. The remaining services industries were split into traded and non-traded following the classification in Jensen and Kletzer (2005).⁹ These calculations suggest that both traded and non-traded output performance weakens during adjustment, but growth of traded output slows by more. These differences, however, are not statistically significant.

The anomalous decline in both traded and non-traded sectors, discussed further below, may reflect that the initial impetus to trade adjustment owes to autonomous movements in domestic demand in addition to or instead of shocks to the dollar. In Table 4, which controls for U.S. GDP growth and thus may allow greater scope to identify the effects of external adjustment, the growth of goods GDP rises during adjustment episodes whereas that of both services and structures GDP declines; these movements are more consistent with the standard external adjustment scenario, although none of them are statistically significant. In contrast, growth of the traded aggregate continues to decline, albeit by a lesser and statistically insignificant amount.

Trade components

Does external adjustment rely more on export expansion or on import compression? Does it rely on strong performance in just a few trade categories, or are adjustments widespread? To address these questions, Table 2 compares movements in the components of trade during adjustment and deterioration periods. It indicates, first, that historically, external adjustment has involved both increases in the growth of exports and declines in the growth of imports. Secondly, no particular sub-categories of trade stand out as being especially important to adjustment, either on the import or the export side.

Prices, exchange rates, and interest rates

Table 3 examines whether other key economic variables differ systematically across the two types of periods. Unlike the variables reported in the previous tables, many of these variables have a significant secular trend, which complicates the time-series comparisons that we are making. The recent deterioration episode is particularly tricky in this respect, as there is no subsequent period of adjustment and because the low levels of inflation and nominal interest rates that have prevailed in recent years tend to pull down the averages for the deterioration periods. Selected series are graphed in Figure 4.

Accordingly, the first column in Table 3 uses our benchmark model to estimate the average difference in a variable's performance during periods of adjustment and periods of deterioration. The second column runs the regressions only through 1992 and thus focuses on the two matched episodes of deterioration and adjustment in our sample. The third column adds a time trend to our benchmark specification. And the final column defines the dependent variable as the variable of interest less its twenty-quarter moving average.

One result that emerges from the regressions is that broad measures of U.S. inflation (lines 1-2) generally appear to be higher during periods of adjustment than during periods of deterioration, suggesting a moderate effect of external adjustment on U.S. inflation.¹⁰ Lines 8-11 report the behavior of relative prices. By and large, moves in relative prices appear to support the process of adjustment in a manner consistent with what theory would suggest. Percent changes in the ratio of prices of non-traded to traded categories decline during the adjustment process, as do changes in the ratio of services prices to goods prices and in the ratio of structures prices to goods prices. This change in the evolution of relative prices during periods of external adjustment helps to shift U.S. demand away from goods (a proxy for tradables) and toward services and structures (proxies for non-tradables). In parallel, the shift in relative prices provides incentives for U.S. producers to shift toward the production of traded goods.

Lines 12 and 13 focus on the exchange rate. We find that on average during episodes of adjustment, the broad real dollar is about 13 percent weaker than during periods of deterioration. The annual rate of dollar depreciation appears (for three of the four specifications) to be 2 percentage points higher during periods of adjustment than during periods of deterioration, although the difference is not statistically significant. We note, however, that the dating of our episodes is geared toward adjustment of the nominal trade balance, which is not fully aligned with movements in exchange rates. The dollar started to depreciate during each of the deterioration periods shown in Exhibit 1, but it took time for the declines to show through to improved trade balances, consistent with J-curve effects. Accordingly, our results may understate the size of the currency moves that contributed to the adjustment of the trade balance.

Another important result is that trade prices (lines 14 and 15) increase significantly more rapidly during periods of external adjustment. We find that price inflation for imports and exports of core goods is higher by roughly 4 percentage points a year during periods of external adjustment.¹¹ These increases in rates of import and export price inflation during adjustment periods are considerably larger than can be explained by the 2 percentage point increase in the dollar's rate of depreciation during those periods.

What, then, is driving this surge in trade prices during external adjustment? Lines 16-19 look at the behavior of oil and commodity prices, important inputs in the production of some imports and exports.¹² The results are mixed. The level of oil prices is lower during adjustment periods, but the rate of change of those prices is (insignificantly) higher. Conversely, the level of non-fuel commodity prices is higher but their rate of change is (insignificantly) lower.¹³ All told, the variables that we consider do not seem able to explain fully the marked rise in the inflation rates of both import prices and export prices that have been a feature of U.S. adjustment episodes.

As shown in the next block of results, we find that nominal interest rates--both long-term and short-term--are generally higher, but real interest rates average 1 to 2 percentage points lower, during periods of external adjustment.¹⁴ These results will be discussed in greater detail below.

External adjustment and domestic demand

In standard textbook models of exchange-rate driven external adjustment, exchange rate depreciation stimulates net exports and pushes up trade prices. Both of these factors put upward pressure on domestic inflation, which prompts monetary policy to tighten and, thus, leads to a rise in real long-term interest rates. This increase in real long-term interest rates, in turn, induces a slowing of domestic consumption and investment. In principle, if the economy starts out in equilibrium and if monetary policy is geared toward price stability with maximum sustainable employment, the monetary policy reaction and the rise in real long-term rates should be just sufficient to maintain the economy's growth rate; that is, higher interest rates should induce a decline in domestic demand growth just sufficient to offset the rise in net exports.

In the two episodes of adjustment that we study, however, the growth rate of domestic demand falls more than the contribution from net exports rises, and GDP growth is accordingly lower (albeit not to a statistically significant extent). We are uncertain what is driving this result, especially given our finding that real interest rates-which we would expect to be a key mechanism for delivering adjustment of domestic demand-appear to have been lower during the periods of adjustment. One explanation is that growth of output and domestic demand have been unsustainably strong during periods of trade balance deterioration, and the slowdown in GDP growth during the adjustment has reflected, at least in part, a necessary moderation in domestic demand. In fact, it is possible that it was this slowing of demand and growth that led--via reductions in real interest rates and declines in the dollar--to external adjustment, rather than external adjustment leading to slowing growth. Note that in this scenario, external adjustment plays a stabilizing role, cushioning the decline in domestic demand through expansion of net exports.

This story that a cyclical weakening of domestic demand has represented a primary impetus for trade balance adjustment receives further support from the finding, noted above, that growth of goods GDP (and traded GDP more generally) slows more than that of services GDP (and non-traded GDP) during periods of adjustment. In principle, a depreciation shock to the exchange rate would boost traded goods output and depress non-traded goods output. However, if the initial impetus for adjustment is, instead, a cyclical slowing of the economy, this could explain why goods GDP growth falls off so much during adjustment: the demand for goods is generally more sensitive to cyclical conditions than the demand for services (see, for example, Stock and Watson, 2003), and thus cyclical effects on goods and services output may outweigh the effects of a more depreciated real exchange rate.

Real versus nominal external adjustment

Our results shed light on the differing features of real adjustment (the narrowing of the deficit in real net exports) compared with nominal adjustment (the narrowing of the nominal trade deficit). On the export side, external adjustment has reflected both increases in real exports (Table 1, column 2) and higher export prices (Table 3); accordingly, the share of nominal exports in GDP rises significantly (Table 1, column 5 and Figure 3). Conversely, whereas external adjustment also involves weaker real import growth relative to GDP (Table 1, column 2), the share of nominal imports in GDP does not decline significantly; increases in import prices (Table 3) offset slower import quantities, leaving the dollar value of imports little changed.

These results confirm research suggesting that import elasticities of demand are close to unity.¹⁵ Thus, when the dollar depreciates, increases in import prices lead to proportionate reductions in import quantities, leaving import values unchanged. Conversely, in response to dollar depreciation, increases in dollar export prices and export quantities both act in the same direction, raising the dollar value of exports. Accordingly, the improvement in real net exports associated with external adjustment has reflected both increases in real exports and declines in real imports; in contrast, the reduction of the nominal trade balance has mainly reflected increases in nominal exports, with nominal imports staying about flat. (See, also, Gust and Sheets, 2006.)

IV.  Does the U.S. Experience with Adjustment Differ from Foreign Experiences?

In the introduction, we noted that prior studies of external adjustment in a broad range of industrial economies had generally supported a relatively benign view. The question was whether the United States, owing to its particular characteristics (large size, low degree of openness, high degree of flexibility), might exhibit different behavior than that indicated by a broad sample of industrial economies. The results of the preceding section suggest that the prima facie answer to this question is: no. Consistent with findings by Freund (2005), Freund and Warnock (2006), Debelle and Galati (2005), and Gagnon (2005), external adjustments in the United States have been associated with some slowdown in GDP growth but not with marked disruptions to activity or financial markets.

In this section, we focus more closely on the extent of any differences in the external adjustment process between the United States and the other industrial economies. Using the methodology applied to U.S. data as described in Sections II and III, we estimate the value of a wide range of macroeconomic variables in 20 OECD countries during periods when their trade balances deteriorated and periods when their balances improved.¹⁶ As a measure of the net effect of external adjustment, we then calculate the differences in performance between the adjustment and deterioration periods for the foreign industrial countries, and compare those differences to the analogous calculations performed on U.S. data.

Methodology

As in our analysis of the United States, we first identify periods of trade balance deterioration and adjustment. To automate this process we calculate a 9-quarter centered moving average of the ratio of the trade balance to GDP for each of the 20 countries. We then identify periods of deterioration or adjustment if the following two criteria are satisfied: (1) the trade balance/GDP ratio moves by at least 1 percentage point (up or down) over the period; and (2) the trade balance/GDP ratio moves by an average of at least 0.1 percentage point per quarter over the period. The numerical criteria are obviously arbitrary, but visual inspection suggests that they do a reasonable job of tracking periods of upswing and downswing in foreign trade balances (see Table 9).¹⁷ All told, we identified 79 adjustment episodes and 78 deterioration episodes.

With these periods of deterioration and adjustment in hand, we replicate the analysis that was applied to the U.S. data (Sections II and III), but use a pooled time series that includes both the United States and the 20 foreign OECD countries. The U.S. data are included in the regression to facilitate statistical comparison of the parameters for the United States with those of the foreign countries. Thus, to distinguish the effects of adjustment and deterioration in the United States from the effects abroad, we add interaction terms in which the standard period dummy variables are multiplied by a dummy variable ($$D^{\text{U.S.}}$$) that equals one for the United States and zero otherwise.

$$y_{i,t} =\beta_{1}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{deterioration}}+\beta_{2}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{adjustment}}+\beta_{3}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{other}}$$

$$+\alpha_{1}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{deterioration}}\ast D^{\text{U.S.}} +\alpha_{2}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{adjustment}}\ast D^{\text{U.S.}}+\alpha_{3}\ast D_{i,t}^{\text{other}}\ast D^{\text{U.S.}}+\varepsilon_{i,t}$$

y: macroeconomic variable, i: country index, t: time index

Results

Table 5 presents the results of our analysis of the components of real GDP in both the foreign economies and the United States. As in Table 1 for the United States, columns (1) through (3) in Table 5 show the performance of these components during deterioration periods, adjustment periods, and the difference between the two. Column (4) presents the adjustment-minus-deterioration calculations for the United States. The U.S. estimates are based on the same dates for deterioration and adjustment periods as in Tables 1-4, but draw on the OECD and UN databases that are used for the foreign countries; accordingly, these estimates differ, but just slightly, from those shown in Table 1.¹⁸ Column (5) shows the differences between the adjustment-minus-deterioration calculations for the foreign countries and the United States, and indicates whether those differences are statistically significant. Finally, columns (6) through (10) present the analogous estimates for the change in nominal shares in GDP.

The salient message from Table 5 is the remarkably similar pattern of results for the foreign industrial countries compared with in the United States. In both cases, GDP growth falls by 1.1 percentage points in adjustment periods compared with in deterioration periods, with the growth of domestic demand falling by about 2 3/4 percentage points and the contribution of net exports to GDP growth rising around 1 1/4 percentage points. None of the differences for growth rates in the adjustment-minus-deterioration calculations (column 5) are statistically significant. That said, residential investment appears to fall off far more during adjustment periods in the United States than in foreign economies.

As with Table 3 for the United States alone, Table 6 compares adjustment-minus-deterioration calculations between foreign countries and the United States for prices, exchange rates, and interest rates. Here, some systematic differences do emerge. Most notably, as shown in lines 6 and 7, the external adjustment in the foreign economies appears to be associated with only a small amount of real exchange rate depreciation, compared with the more pronounced depreciation associated with U.S. adjustment. This difference may explain why the foreign economies appear to experience only small increases in consumer price inflation (lines 1 and 2) during adjustment periods and no increases in trade price inflation (lines 8 and 9). Interestingly, during adjustment periods, foreign nominal long-term interest rates and policy rates (lines 10 and 12) rise about the same as in the United States. However, because foreign inflation rises by much less than in the United States, real short- and long-term interest rates rise abroad, whereas they fall in the United States.

Interpretation

It is clear that during external adjustment, the growth of GDP and its components have reacted quite similarly in the foreign economies and in the United States. Moreover, compared with in the United States, it seems even less likely in the foreign economies that exchange rate declines caused the fall in GDP growth during adjustment, given the relatively modest amounts of depreciation we identified. This does raise the question, however, of why did foreign real interest rates rise rather than fall (as in the United States) during adjustment, and what caused foreign GDP growth to fall?

One possible explanation is that foreign monetary authorities historically have been more focused on the exchange rate than in the United States, so a smaller amount of depreciation led to greater real interest rate adjustment. Then, even a relatively modest amount of depreciation could have led to higher interest rates which lowered GDP growth (even though it would have been the lower GDP growth that achieved trade adjustment rather than the change in currency values). Or, alternatively, the initial shock might have been a slowdown in domestic demand leading to both declines in GDP growth and in the currency--but unlike in the United States, foreign authorities chose to raise real interest rates in response to exchange rate depreciation rather than lowering them in response to weaker activity. Resolving this issue will require further investigation.

V.  Performance of Foreign Economies during U.S. External Adjustment

U.S. external adjustment implies a reduction in the U.S. trade deficit and, accordingly, reductions in the trade surpluses of our trading partners. Some observers have voiced concerns that U.S. adjustment could pose a significant threat to economic activity abroad. What does the historical record indicate? Here, we compare the macroeconomic performance of the 20 OECD countries we studied in Section IV during the same periods of U.S. external deterioration and adjustment that we used to analyze U.S. macroeconomic performance in Sections II and III.¹⁹ All performance indicators represent averages over the foreign OECD sample, weighted by nominal dollar-value GDP at market exchange rates. The results are shown in Tables 7 and 8, and selected series are graphed in Figures 5-8.

Analogous to Table 1 for the United States, Table 7 summarizes the performance of GDP and its components abroad. Column 1 indicates their average growth rates during periods when the U.S. trade deficit widened, column 2 presents analogous calculations for periods when the U.S. trade deficit narrowed, and column 3 indicates the difference; columns 4-6 analyze the shares of components in nominal GDP.

The central message of Table 7 is that foreign real GDP growth has been higher during periods of U.S. external adjustment than during periods of U.S. deterioration. Net exports impose a slight drag on GDP growth during U.S. adjustment periods, but this is offset by stronger domestic demand growth. All components of domestic demand show more rapid growth during U.S. adjustment periods, although these differences are only statistically significant for consumption.

In Section III, we noted that it was difficult to explain the decline in U.S. GDP growth solely by referring to a decline in the dollar. An autonomous decline in the dollar should have boosted net exports and left U.S. GDP growth at least as high as during periods of trade balance deterioration--therefore, some autonomous softening of domestic demand must also have been involved. By the same token, the rise in foreign GDP growth during periods of U.S. adjustment cannot be fully explained either by declines in the dollar or softenings of U.S. domestic demand. Either of these two events would have weighed on net exports in our trading partners, inducing declines in activity and prices that should have led to some decline in interest rates. Lower foreign interest rates, in turn, would have been expected to boost domestic demand abroad, but not to the extent that overall GDP growth would actually exceed what it would have been in the absence of U.S. external adjustment. Therefore, an autonomous strengthening of domestic demand abroad also appears to have been at work in pushing up foreign GDP growth during periods of U.S. adjustment.

Table 8 summarizes the performance of foreign prices, exchange rates, and interest rates during periods of U.S. trade adjustment and deterioration. These calculations also point to a positive shock to domestic demand abroad during periods of U.S. trade adjustment. First, although foreign currencies are more appreciated during periods of U.S. adjustment (line 6), the results on lines 1-4 generally indicate that inflation is higher during periods of U.S. adjustment than deterioration, consistent with higher demand and growth.

Second, as also noted above, we would expect declines in the U.S. trade deficit, by themselves, to be reflected in lower net exports of our trading partners, diminished activity and prices, and hence lower interest rates. In fact, lines 10-13 of Table 8 point, for the most part, to higher nominal and real interest rates during periods of U.S. adjustment compared with periods of U.S. deterioration.

To sum up, the foreign industrial economies generally appear not to have been adversely affected by past U.S. external adjustments. Their benign experience appears to reflect more than merely flexible responses to the effects of reduced U.S. trade deficits. In fact, just as U.S. adjustments appear to have been associated with negative shocks to U.S. domestic demand, U.S. adjustments also appear to have been associated with positive shocks to domestic demand in foreign countries. And just as U.S. external adjustment may have played a stabilizing role in the United States, cushioning the falloff in domestic demand, the counterpart declines in net exports abroad may have played a similar stabilizing role by offsetting some of strength of domestic demand in foreign economies.

VI.  Conclusion

In this paper, we have analyzed the effects of U.S. external adjustment by comparing past episodes when the trade balance deteriorated with those when it narrowed. At the most general level, the purpose of our research was to identify the basic empirical characteristics of U.S. external adjustment. More specifically, we were interested in assessing the historical support for claims that future external adjustment in the United States, likely driven by a decline in the dollar, would prove injurious both for the U.S. economy and for that of our foreign trading partners.

We found that during periods of U.S. external adjustment, real GDP growth did tend to slow somewhat as improvements in net exports were more than offset by deteriorations in domestic demand. However, this slowing of real GDP growth was not statistically significant. Moreover, several features of the external adjustment episodes--the fall in real interest rates and the slowing of tradeable output growth--indicate that declines in GDP growth may in part have reflected autonomous weakenings of domestic demand. That is, declines in GDP growth may have been the cause as much as the outcome of external adjustment.

Our findings of relatively benign external adjustment episodes in the United States are consistent with the results of prior research focusing on the experiences of industrial economies more generally. To further explore this issue, we analyzed the macroeconomic performance of 20 foreign OECD countries during periods when their trade balances deteriorated and improved, using the same methodology that we had applied to U.S. data. Comparing adjustment episodes with deterioration episodes, we found that the foreign economies experienced falloffs in domestic demand growth, offsetting improvements in net exports, and resultant small declines in GDP growth that were remarkably similar to those in the United States. The foreign economies did experience much smaller real exchange rate depreciations during adjustment periods than in the United States, and increases rather than declines in real interest rates. All told, however, our results cast doubt on the proposition that the United States will exhibit unique responses to external adjustment.

Finally, our research addressed the concern that U.S. external adjustment might substantially drag down growth in our trading partners. In the mirror image to the experience of the United States, we found that compared with periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration, GDP growth in the foreign industrial economies actually rose during U.S. adjustment episodes: domestic demand strengthened significantly more than net exports weakened. This result, together with findings that foreign inflation and interest rates also rose during U.S. adjustment episodes, suggests that just as these adjustment episodes have been associated with negative demand shocks in the United States, they have been associated with positive demand shocks abroad.

This juxtaposition of negative demand shocks here and positive shocks abroad may be mere coincidence. An alternative possibility is that the U.S. trade deficit is most likely to adjust when both U.S. domestic demand experiences a negative shock and domestic demand abroad receives a positive shock. Such a combination of shocks would lead not only to a maximum income effect on the U.S. trade balance--lowering U.S. imports and raising U.S. exports--but also to a maximum exchange rate effect, with declining interest rates in the United States and rising interest rates abroad both pushing the dollar down. We leave it to additional research to pursue this issue further.

There is no guarantee that future adjustment episodes will follow in the footsteps of past episodes, and we cannot preclude the possibility that a reduction of the U.S. trade deficit will be injurious to both the U.S. and foreign economies. For example, the U.S. trade and current account deficits are presently much larger than they were at the start of prior adjustment episodes, so a future correction may involve considerably more adjustment than in the past; this, in turn, could entail more disruptive effects than the historical experience would indicate. However, the historical evidence suggests, at a minimum, that it is quite possible for the U.S. trade deficit to narrow without undue economic distress, either at home or abroad. Moreover, past experience points to the possibility that when U.S. external adjustment materializes, it could do so in a way that helps stabilize the global economy, cushioning declines in U.S. demand and limiting overheating in foreign economies.

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Data Source Appendix

U.S. Data

• Data for the U.S. current account and international trade in goods and services are from the Balance of Payments Accounts, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), http://www.bea.gov/bea/di/home/bop.htm.
• U.S. GDP data are from the BEA's National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/home/gdp.htm.
• The traded and non-traded GDP data are constructed from the BEA's GDP-by-Industry Accounts, http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn2/home/annual_industry.htm. Traded output is defined as the sum of agriculture; mining; manufacturing; information services; finance and insurance; professional, scientific, and technical services; and management of enterprises (using "chained" arithmetic, as appropriate). Non-traded output includes construction, utilities, wholesale and retail trade, government; transportation and warehousing; real estate and rental and leasing; administrative and waste management services; education, health care, and social assistance; arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services; and other services, except government. The annual data are converted to quarterly using a cubic spline technique.
• The U.S. GDP Gap is from the OECD Economic Outlook database. Information about this database can be found at http://www.oecd.org.
• The U.S. CPI is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm.
• The U.S. broad real dollar index and U.S. interest rates are from the Federal Reserve Board, http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/.
• Core import and export prices are constructed by the Federal Reserve Board from the NIPA data.
• U.S. oil import prices are provided by the BEA. Non-fuel commodity prices are from the International Monetary Fund, http://www.imf.org/external/np/res/commod/index.asp.

Foreign Data

• National Accounts data are from the OECD Quarterly National Accounts database and from countries' national statistical agencies.
• The traded and non-traded output data for all countries are from the United Nations, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnllist.asp. These data provide a breakdown of nominal and real gross value added for every country on an annual basis. Traded output is defined as the sum of Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Mining, and Manufacturing and Utilities. Non-traded output is the sum of Construction, Wholesale and Retail trade, Transport, Communications and Other Activities. The annual data are converted to quarterly using a cubic spline technique.
• The output gap, current account, import and export price deflators, and interest rates are from the OECD Economic Outlook database. Information about this database can be found at http://www.oecd.org.
• The consumer price index for most countries are from their national statistical agencies. CPI data for countries in the euro area are from the European Central Bank, http://www.ecb.int. They define core CPI as headline excluding food, energy, alcohol and tobacco. All other countries core CPI use headline excluding food and energy.
• The nominal and real effective exchange rates are from the Bank for International Settlements, http://www.bis.org/statistics/eer/index.htm.
• The bilateral exchange rates are from Bloomberg and the Federal Reserve Board, http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H10/Hist/.

Table 1 (Panel 1). U.S. GDP Components - Real Growth Rates (percent, a.r.)

* Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.

** Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.

/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.

Table 1 (Panel 2). U.S. GDP Components - Change in Nominal Shares (percentage pts., a.r.)

* Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.

** Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.

/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.

Table 2 (Panel 1). U.S. Trade Components - Real Growth Rates (percent, a.r.)

* Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.

** Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.

/1 Nominal shares for the categories of trade are defined as the percent of total exports (or imports) of goods and services.

Table 2 (Panel 2). U.S. Trade Components - Change in Nominal Shares (percentage pts., a.r.)/1

* Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.

** Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.

/1 Nominal shares for the categories of trade are defined as the percent of total exports (or imports) of goods and services.

Table 3. U.S. Prices and Related Variables -- Adjustment Minus Deterioration (percentage points, a.r.)

*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.

**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.

/1 Core imports are imports of goods excluding iol, computers, and semiconductors. Core exports are exports of goods excluding computers and semiconductors.

/2 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the 4-quarter percent change in the CPI.

/3 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the annualized quarterly percent change in the CPI.

Table 4 (Panel 1). GDP Components (Regressions include U.S. real GDP growth as an explanatory variable) - Real Growth Rates (percent, a.r.)

*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributios to real GDP growth.

Table 4 (Panel 2). GDP Components (Regressions include U.S. real GDP growth as an explanatory variable) - Change in Nominal Shares (percentage pts., a.r.)

*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributios to real GDP growth.

Table 5 (Panel 1). Foreign GDP Components - Real Growth Rates (prercent, a.r.)

Note: Foreign countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.
/2 The GDP gap is defined as (actual - potential)/potential, in percent.

Table 5 (Panel 2). Foreign GDP Components - Change in Nominal Shares (percentage pts., a.r.)

Note: Foreign countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.
/2 The GDP gap is defined as (actual - potential)/potential, in percent.

Table 6 (Panel 1). Other Foreign Variables -- Adjustment Minus Deterioration (percentage points, a.r.) - Benchmark Model

Note: Foreign countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the 4-quarter percent change in the CPI.
/2 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the annualized quarterly precent change in the CPI.

Table 6 (Panel 2). Other Foreign Variables -- Adjustment Minus Deterioration (percentage points, a.r.) - Time Trend

Note: Foreign countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the 4-quarter percent change in the CPI.
/2 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the annualized quarterly precent change in the CPI.

Table 7 (Panel 1). Foreign GDP Components during U.S. Deterioration and Adjustment Periods - Real Growth Rates (percent, a.r.)

Note: Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.

Table 7 (Panel 2). Foreign GDP Components during U.S. Deterioration and Adjustment Periods - Change in Nominal Shares (percentage pts., a.r.)

Note: Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 The regressions for this variable in real terms are expressed as percentage point contributions to real GDP growth.

Table 8. Other Foreign Variables -- U.S. Adjustment Minus U.S. Deterioration (percentage pts., a.r.)

Note: Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finalnd, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*Denotes significance at the 10 percent level.
**Denotes significance at the 5 percent level.
/1 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the 4-quarter percent change in the CPI.
/2 Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the annualized quarterly percent change in the CPI.

Table 9. Foreign Trade Balance Adjustment and Deterioration Dates

Explanation for Figures 1 - 8

This paper contains 8 figures, each of which plot data from 1970:Q1 to 2005:Q4. Each figure contains background shading to indicate periods when the U.S. trade balance adjusted and periods when the U.S. trade balance deteriorated. These periods are discussed in the main text of the paper. The three periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration are 1975:Q3 to 1978:Q1, 1980:Q4 to 1987:Q2, and 1997:Q2 to 2005:Q4. The two periods of U.S. trade balance adjustment are 1978:Q2 to 1980:Q3 and 1987:Q3 to 1992:Q1.

Figure 1. U.S. External Balances (Panel One) and Broad Real Dollar Index (Panel Two)

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.

Data for Figure 1

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: U.S. Current Account Balance as Percent of GDP	Panel 1, Line 2: U.S. Trade Balance as Percent of GDP	Panel 2, Line 1: Broad Real Dollar Index
1970q1	0.24	0.18	NA
1970q2	0.38	0.36	NA
1970q3	0.2	0.2	NA
1970q4	0.08	0.13	NA
1971q1	0.25	0.23	NA
1971q2	-0.15	-0.18	NA
1971q3	-0.19	-0.18	NA
1971q4	-0.41	-0.32	NA
1972q1	-0.57	-0.46	NA
1972q2	-0.55	-0.53	NA
1972q3	-0.41	-0.36	NA
1972q4	-0.35	-0.41	NA
1973q1	0.04	-0.25	103.67
1973q2	0.25	0.01	98.89
1973q3	0.79	0.31	95.98
1973q4	0.94	0.45	97.39
1974q1	0.45	0.24	97.77
1974q2	0.03	-0.41	94.02
1974q3	-0.08	-0.65	95.72
1974q4	0.14	-0.3	95.38
1975q1	1.07	0.86	92.78
1975q2	1.25	1.13	92.14
1975q3	0.98	0.51	95.51
1975q4	1.12	0.55	95.85
1976q1	0.58	0.02	94.35
1976q2	0.37	-0.28	93.91
1976q3	-0.02	-0.45	93.61
1976q4	0.03	-0.6	94.02
1977q1	-0.55	-1.26	93.48
1977q2	-0.6	-1.25	93.04
1977q3	-0.53	-1.19	92.11
1977q4	-1.11	-1.66	90.24
1978q1	-1.31	-2.03	88.25
1978q2	-0.66	-1.18	88.13
1978q3	-0.63	-1.19	85.11
1978q4	-0.11	-0.85	84.77
1979q1	-0.07	-0.83	86.16
1979q2	-0.11	-0.97	88.08
1979q3	0.14	-0.97	87.4
1979q4	-0.01	-1.06	89.01
1980q1	-0.51	-1.6	89.76
1980q2	-0.14	-0.72	90.04
1980q3	0.62	-0.13	87.71
1980q4	0.33	-0.36	89.01
1981q1	0.13	-0.57	91.08
1981q2	0.16	-0.53	95.7
1981q3	0.26	-0.35	100.39
1981q4	0.09	-0.62	97.56
1982q1	-0.04	-0.63	100.44
1982q2	0.47	-0.26	103.73
1982q3	-0.49	-1.03	108.82
1982q4	-0.6	-1.03	108.92
1983q1	-0.3	-0.86	106.58
1983q2	-0.9	-1.48	109.11
1983q3	-1.44	-1.99	112.06
1983q4	-1.67	-2.14	112.13
1984q1	-2.2	-2.68	112.71
1984q2	-2.4	-2.87	114.22
1984q3	-2.35	-2.74	119.4
1984q4	-2.63	-2.8	122.02
1985q1	-2.28	-2.42	126.25
1985q2	-2.75	-2.92	124.41
1985q3	-2.94	-2.93	121.1
1985q4	-3.21	-3.26	115.92
1986q1	-3.12	-3.15	111.01
1986q2	-3.23	-2.99	106.62
1986q3	-3.39	-3.17	104.1
1986q4	-3.45	-3.11	104.29
1987q1	-3.4	-3.21	100.56
1987q2	-3.41	-3.26	97.72
1987q3	-3.37	-3.19	98.69
1987q4	-3.38	-3.14	94.24
1988q1	-2.66	-2.6	91.19
1988q2	-2.28	-2.21	90.13
1988q3	-2.17	-2.03	93.56
1988q4	-2.39	-2.15	90.08
1989q1	-2.12	-2.01	90.97
1989q2	-1.85	-1.74	93.75
1989q3	-1.59	-1.46	93.95
1989q4	-1.7	-1.6	92.84
1990q1	-1.65	-1.61	93
1990q2	-1.35	-1.26	93.62
1990q3	-1.47	-1.33	90.45
1990q4	-0.98	-1.38	87.87
1991q1	0.68	-0.88	88.37
1991q2	0.17	-0.43	91.47
1991q3	-0.28	-0.37	91.15
1991q4	-0.35	-0.41	88.3
1992q1	-0.4	-0.35	88.37
1992q2	-0.76	-0.63	88.32
1992q3	-0.83	-0.67	85.81
1992q4	-1.16	-0.81	89.24
1993q1	-0.9	-0.87	90.63
1993q2	-1.25	-1.07	88.45
1993q3	-1.28	-1.14	88.84
1993q4	-1.65	-1.14	89.39
1994q1	-1.45	-1.27	91.21
1994q2	-1.63	-1.37	90.25
1994q3	-1.78	-1.43	88.01
1994q4	-2.02	-1.51	87.18
1995q1	-1.72	-1.53	88.98
1995q2	-1.75	-1.6	84.61
1995q3	-1.45	-1.09	85.8
1995q4	-1.23	-1	87.48
1996q1	-1.44	-1.24	88.48
1996q2	-1.53	-1.31	88.72
1996q3	-1.83	-1.56	88.7
1996q4	-1.57	-1.22	89.14
1997q1	-1.78	-1.45	91.51
1997q2	-1.4	-1.15	92.05
1997q3	-1.56	-1.19	93.59
1997q4	-2.03	-1.42	96.93
1998q1	-2.04	-1.63	101.18
1998q2	-2.36	-1.9	101.23
1998q3	-2.66	-2.02	103.78
1998q4	-2.7	-1.98	99.65
1999q1	-2.78	-2.35	100.29
1999q2	-3.13	-2.75	101.52
1999q3	-3.45	-3.05	101.31
1999q4	-3.57	-3.19	100.24
2000q1	-4.09	-3.72	101.33
2000q2	-4.03	-3.68	104.18
2000q3	-4.36	-3.92	105.56
2000q4	-4.43	-4.06	108.02
2001q1	-4.29	-3.88	109.01
2001q2	-3.87	-3.5	111.65
2001q3	-3.67	-3.53	111.31
2001q4	-3.54	-3.42	111.37
2002q1	-4.22	-3.61	112.92
2002q2	-4.57	-3.96	111.45
2002q3	-4.52	-4.08	109.69
2002q4	-4.72	-4.43	109.95
2003q1	-5.12	-4.64	107.65
2003q2	-4.84	-4.55	104.23
2003q3	-4.75	-4.44	104.56
2003q4	-4.55	-4.44	100.64
2004q1	-5.1	-4.76	98.82
2004q2	-5.73	-5.2	101.83
2004q3	-5.64	-5.31	100.91
2004q4	-6.23	-5.58	96.99
2005q1	-6.3	-5.52	96.01
2005q2	-6.26	-5.57	97.92
2005q3	-5.83	-5.78	98.97
2005q4	-7.01	-6.12	99.49

Figure 2. Components of U.S. Real GDP

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.

Data for Figure 2

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real GDP	Panel 1, Line 2:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Domestic Demand	Panel 1, Line 3:  4-Quarter Percentage Point Contribution of Real Net Exports to U.S. GDP Growth	Panel 2, Line 1:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Consumption	Panel 2, Line 2:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Nonresidential Investment	Panel 2, Line 3:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Residential Investment	Panel 3, Line 1:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Exports	Panel 3, Line 2:  4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. Real Imports
1970q1	0.26	-0.11	0.37	2.5	2.62	-8.88	24.69	16.48
1970q2	0.16	-0.23	0.39	2.33	0.97	-14.02	6.34	-0.79
1970q3	0.43	-0.02	0.44	2.75	-1.21	-8.7	8.59	0.3
1970q4	-0.17	-0.34	0.17	1.66	-4.36	8.89	5.93	3
1971q1	2.77	2.58	0.19	3	-2.87	14.47	5.41	2.1
1971q2	3.15	3.54	-0.37	3.47	-0.95	35.02	0.77	7.69
1971q3	3.06	3.33	-0.26	3.39	-1.03	34.51	5.26	10.31
1971q4	4.47	4.81	-0.32	5.41	5.06	26.4	-4.45	1.24
1972q1	3.46	4.11	-0.63	4.8	7.54	28	5.28	17.45
1972q2	5.31	5.47	-0.17	5.8	7.8	18.54	2.42	5.33
1972q3	5.47	5.52	-0.06	6.58	9.01	13.24	4.31	5.19
1972q4	6.9	6.88	0	7.27	12.22	12.91	18.66	17.94
1973q1	7.7	7.28	0.41	7.78	13.73	9.4	15.16	7.64
1973q2	6.43	5.55	0.85	5.72	16.4	1.85	24.34	8.39
1973q3	4.86	3.99	0.85	4.49	16.55	-2.7	17.67	3.25
1973q4	4.16	2.95	1.19	1.81	11.67	-10.55	18.45	-0.45
1974q1	0.7	-0.72	1.39	-0.85	6.53	-19.79	11.76	-8.09
1974q2	-0.16	-1.06	0.87	-0.4	2.14	-19.19	11.8	-0.34
1974q3	-0.6	-0.97	0.35	-0.32	-0.7	-18.4	5.42	0.7
1974q4	-1.93	-2.28	0.33	-1.46	-4.22	-25.58	3.09	-1.06
1975q1	-2.26	-3.13	0.84	0.24	-10.01	-24.65	2.52	-7.83
1975q2	-1.82	-3.07	1.26	1.47	-12.16	-19.52	-5.09	-19.49
1975q3	0.81	-0.02	0.85	2.46	-10.3	-10.97	-1.37	-11.25
1975q4	2.54	1.94	0.61	5.04	-6.89	7.01	1.56	-5.57
1976q1	6.12	7.06	-0.88	6.22	1.04	25.71	0.14	11.52
1976q2	6.13	7.74	-1.5	5.45	4.98	26.6	4.2	26.49
1976q3	4.86	5.76	-0.85	5.06	6.27	16.42	9.06	21.55
1976q4	4.25	5.39	-1.09	5.34	7.38	25.75	4.27	19.22
1977q1	3.19	4.31	-1.12	4.51	9.54	17.53	3.32	17.51
1977q2	4.43	5.14	-0.72	4.15	11.37	27.32	5.04	13.66
1977q3	5.79	6.2	-0.43	4.05	11.31	29.03	2.86	7.68
1977q4	5.03	5.62	-0.61	4.24	12.86	12.94	-1.45	5.7
1978q1	4.11	4.56	-0.5	3.61	9.68	10.17	2.52	7.68
1978q2	6.13	5.89	0.17	5.25	15.61	3.61	10.24	7.04
1978q3	5.29	5.29	-0.05	4.71	17.22	5.38	10.6	9.98
1978q4	6.69	6.07	0.54	4	17.06	6.42	18.82	9.96
1979q1	6.55	5.46	0.99	3.95	18.52	3.41	16.18	2.74
1979q2	2.61	2.4	0.18	1.74	8.94	-3.17	5.49	2.98
1979q3	2.34	1.65	0.67	2.3	8.49	-5.63	8.09	0.1
1979q4	1.31	0.49	0.82	1.77	5.34	-8.88	10.47	0.86
1980q1	1.43	0.41	1.04	1.08	4.17	-13.83	13.48	1.27
1980q2	-0.71	-2.69	2.03	-1.14	-0.81	-28.44	15.3	-6.62
1980q3	-1.58	-3.82	2.27	-1.04	-3.08	-26.34	11.08	-12
1980q4	-0.05	-1.41	1.38	-0.01	-1.31	-15.97	3.91	-9.23
1981q1	1.65	0.75	0.9	0.58	-0.79	-10.64	2.95	-5.47
1981q2	2.94	2.99	-0.06	2.9	6.61	5.94	1.62	2.13
1981q3	4.36	5.28	-0.89	2.19	8.4	-3.87	-0.33	8.8
1981q4	1.18	1.72	-0.54	0.09	8.73	-21.4	0.7	6.2
1982q1	-2.46	-2.03	-0.42	0.32	4.43	-24.58	-5.4	-1.03
1982q2	-1.16	-0.91	-0.24	0.65	-1.26	-24.41	-5.38	-2.82
1982q3	-2.71	-1.74	-0.97	1.02	-6.85	-18.35	-7.61	2.85
1982q4	-1.4	-0.63	-0.76	3.64	-10.89	-2.37	-12.23	-3.94
1983q1	1.48	2.21	-0.71	3.97	-10.38	21.26	-6.8	1.14
1983q2	3.22	4.81	-1.58	5.67	-5.95	40.05	-7.05	10.73
1983q3	5.65	6.99	-1.39	6.72	1.72	54.42	-1.27	14.08
1983q4	7.72	9.34	-1.68	6.47	10.52	49.95	5.55	24.57
1984q1	8.49	10.64	-2.22	6.35	16.28	31.68	6.04	31.56
1984q2	7.92	9.59	-1.8	5.77	20.62	19.91	8.34	27.28
1984q3	6.86	8	-1.28	4.72	19.24	8.05	9.09	21.14
1984q4	5.58	6.55	-1.09	4.46	14.73	3.78	9.11	18.87
1985q1	4.51	4.64	-0.22	5.3	12.37	0.66	6.96	7.61
1985q2	3.62	4.05	-0.54	4.76	8.56	-0.38	3.99	8.36
1985q3	4.23	4.55	-0.44	5.93	3.47	1.87	0.25	4.59
1985q4	4.17	4.52	-0.48	4.79	2.75	4.18	1.19	5.55
1986q1	4.2	4.55	-0.45	3.92	0.21	8.97	4.37	7.88
1986q2	3.73	3.92	-0.29	4.07	-3.69	14.11	5.87	7.19
1986q3	3.11	3.42	-0.41	3.91	-3.62	14.42	9.9	11.26
1986q4	2.84	2.8	-0.05	4.33	-4.29	11.55	10.68	7.95
1987q1	2.54	2.66	-0.21	3.51	-5.61	6.7	7.3	7.3
1987q2	3.26	2.98	0.18	3.83	-0.87	1.53	10.46	5.52
1987q3	3.21	2.7	0.41	3.2	3.85	-0.31	12.64	4.66
1987q4	4.48	4.08	0.28	2.8	2.58	0.36	12.6	6.21
1988q1	4.31	3.49	0.7	4.47	6.26	-1.55	18.76	6.43
1988q2	4.48	3.34	1.04	3.8	6.33	-1.2	17.29	2.62
1988q3	4.1	3.18	0.82	3.5	3.55	-0.84	14.54	3.01
1988q4	3.66	2.87	0.7	4.46	4.87	-0.46	13.85	3.73
1989q1	4.2	3.61	0.5	3.13	5.84	1.08	10.98	3.89
1989q2	3.57	3.13	0.38	2.88	4.76	-2.69	12.7	6.69
1989q3	3.75	3.13	0.57	3	7.22	-3.81	11.93	4.38
1989q4	2.66	2	0.62	2.27	4.54	-6.65	10.38	2.66
1990q1	2.8	2.27	0.49	2.72	4.17	-5.08	11.87	5.22
1990q2	2.4	2.1	0.26	2.58	0.93	-5.94	8.55	4.82
1990q3	1.68	1.4	0.26	2.03	-1.27	-10.31	8.21	4.55
1990q4	0.65	-0.04	0.7	0.84	-1.71	-13.46	7.54	-0.07
1991q1	-1	-1.77	0.8	-0.4	-5.49	-19.43	3.61	-4.25
1991q2	-0.61	-1.44	0.84	0.14	-4.75	-14.23	6.06	-2.61
1991q3	-0.14	-0.85	0.71	0.16	-6.25	-5.29	7.7	0.11
1991q4	1.09	0.7	0.38	0.79	-4.93	2.46	9.08	4.61
1992q1	2.66	2.44	0.21	2.89	-2.85	14.5	10.43	7.75
1992q2	2.98	3.08	-0.11	2.59	1.99	16.14	6.57	7.4
1992q3	3.49	3.49	-0.01	3.16	5.06	11.77	6.32	6.12
1992q4	4.15	4.36	-0.24	4.45	8.8	13.09	4.5	6.59
1993q1	3.2	3.74	-0.54	3.12	9.95	8.09	2.89	8.09
1993q2	2.73	3.19	-0.47	3.44	8.56	5.33	4.05	8.36
1993q3	2.26	2.95	-0.7	3.54	7.58	8.72	1.59	8.23
1993q4	2.51	3.13	-0.64	3.27	8.8	10.44	4.37	10.26
1994q1	3.42	3.97	-0.57	4.04	9.23	12.11	5.14	10.23
1994q2	4.24	4.74	-0.54	3.87	8.53	14.54	7.36	11.78
1994q3	4.29	4.56	-0.32	3.48	9.36	9.55	11.65	13.46
1994q4	4.11	4.37	-0.3	3.59	9.6	2.96	10.54	12.21
1995q1	3.35	3.51	-0.19	2.62	12.95	-1.28	11.55	12.05
1995q2	2.2	2.26	-0.09	2.73	11.5	-7.55	9.49	9.08
1995q3	2.46	2.13	0.3	2.89	10.19	-3.66	10.2	6.46
1995q4	2.02	1.59	0.4	2.56	7.65	-0.19	9.4	4.95
1996q1	2.45	2.18	0.24	3.3	5.98	4.76	8.78	5.75
1996q2	3.94	3.81	0.07	3.57	8.28	12.8	9.1	7.4
1996q3	3.97	4.6	-0.67	3.33	11.12	9.1	5.38	10.56
1996q4	4.42	4.58	-0.18	3.48	11.85	5.57	10.28	11.01
1997q1	4.49	4.75	-0.3	3.69	11.93	3.23	10.93	12.44
1997q2	4.37	4.49	-0.16	3.05	11.5	0.29	13.43	13.54
1997q3	4.79	4.78	-0.06	4.08	13.43	1.02	15.15	13.95
1997q4	4.34	5.09	-0.8	4.29	11.37	3.11	8.29	14.3
1998q1	4.69	5.53	-0.91	4.31	12.27	4.88	6.82	13.71
1998q2	3.8	5.08	-1.32	5.47	12.93	6.44	1.62	12.3
1998q3	3.71	4.99	-1.33	5.02	8.46	8.85	-1.16	9.68
1998q4	4.51	5.52	-1.07	5.35	10.9	10.34	2.65	11.02
1999q1	4.24	5.26	-1.08	5.24	9.22	9.03	1.32	9.82
1999q2	4.42	5.29	-0.97	5.21	9.18	7.01	3.58	10.7
1999q3	4.43	5.27	-0.95	5.05	10.75	4.79	6.77	13.12
1999q4	4.7	5.54	-0.96	4.93	7.69	3.59	5.6	12.13
2000q1	4.08	4.87	-0.92	5.55	9.39	3.74	8.24	13.63
2000q2	4.85	5.5	-0.81	4.58	9.87	1.94	10.16	14
2000q3	3.52	4.23	-0.85	4.5	7.86	-0.74	10.08	13.85
2000q4	2.24	3	-0.86	4.09	7.83	-1.85	6.53	11.17
2001q1	1.86	2.26	-0.49	2.88	3.16	-2.31	3.42	5.95
2001q2	0.59	0.67	-0.11	2.49	-3.91	-0.07	-2.87	-1.41
2001q3	0.35	0.37	-0.04	1.96	-6.09	2.48	-9.94	-7.16
2001q4	0.23	0.4	-0.19	2.82	-9.59	1.42	-11.86	-7.59
2002q1	1.03	1.41	-0.44	2.76	-11.68	3.39	-9.52	-4.1
2002q2	1.27	1.92	-0.71	3.1	-9.82	4.32	-4.02	2.15
2002q3	2.22	2.83	-0.7	3.23	-8.66	4.37	1.64	6.42
2002q4	1.87	2.7	-0.9	1.86	-6.54	7.02	3.76	9.7
2003q1	1.49	2.02	-0.61	2.03	-3.92	5.47	1.06	5.33
2003q2	1.81	2.35	-0.64	2.34	0.11	5.7	-1.86	3.32
2003q3	3.05	3.3	-0.38	3.22	2.87	10.59	0.1	2.85
2003q4	3.68	3.63	-0.12	3.44	4.93	11.67	5.77	4.8
2004q1	4.35	4.51	-0.38	4.1	6.08	11.38	9.12	8.79
2004q2	4.49	4.87	-0.6	3.93	5.23	13.65	11.24	11.75
2004q3	3.41	3.99	-0.77	3.46	5.47	8.96	9.56	11.93
2004q4	3.4	4.06	-0.85	3.96	6.85	6.07	7.01	10.57
2005q1	3.29	3.81	-0.7	3.47	7.96	8.08	6.37	8.99
2005q2	3.09	3.04	-0.11	3.79	7.44	8.12	7.17	5.39
2005q3	3.36	3.26	-0.09	3.79	6.35	9.12	6.77	4.9
2005q4	3.15	3.12	-0.15	2.9	5.57	9.03	6.7	5.18

Figure 3. Components of U.S. Nominal GDP

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.

Data for Figure 3

Dates	Panel1, Line 1: U.S. Nominal Consumption as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 2, Line 1: U.S. Nominal Nonresidential Investment as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 2, Line 2: U.S. Nominal Residential Investment as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 3, Line 1: U.S. Nominal Exports as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 3, Line 2: U.S. Nominal Imports as Share of Nominal GDP
1970q1	62.26	10.63	4	5.59	5.26
1970q2	62.26	10.59	3.81	5.86	5.34
1970q3	62.36	10.53	3.84	5.74	5.37
1970q4	62.87	10.25	4.27	5.8	5.5
1971q1	62.01	10.05	4.43	5.74	5.34
1971q2	62.11	10.13	4.88	5.64	5.66
1971q3	62.1	10.08	5.12	5.74	5.75
1971q4	62.84	10.25	5.34	5.23	5.38
1972q1	62.26	10.36	5.59	5.77	6.06
1972q2	61.97	10.3	5.57	5.48	5.82
1972q3	62.28	10.33	5.57	5.72	5.93
1972q4	62.4	10.61	5.77	5.92	6.15
1973q1	61.98	10.79	5.83	6.29	6.39
1973q2	61.47	11.09	5.52	6.7	6.52
1973q3	61.95	11.28	5.39	7.01	6.55
1973q4	61.22	11.16	5.08	7.51	6.89
1974q1	61.86	11.24	4.77	8.07	7.62
1974q2	62.19	11.27	4.54	8.53	8.71
1974q3	62.91	11.39	4.45	8.36	8.82
1974q4	61.95	11.29	3.87	8.79	8.79
1975q1	62.97	10.89	3.67	9	7.95
1975q2	63.37	10.64	3.73	8.52	7.18
1975q3	63.21	10.5	3.89	8.06	7.34
1975q4	63	10.42	4.01	8.31	7.51
1976q1	62.85	10.38	4.3	8.1	7.84
1976q2	62.81	10.44	4.47	8.12	8.15
1976q3	63.27	10.61	4.39	8.26	8.48
1976q4	63.49	10.71	4.91	8.28	8.63
1977q1	63.55	11.04	5.03	8.01	9.1
1977q2	62.83	11.15	5.57	8.07	9.12
1977q3	62.5	11.25	5.57	7.85	8.85
1977q4	62.98	11.58	5.54	7.47	8.87
1978q1	63.25	11.64	5.63	7.66	9.46
1978q2	62.29	12.13	5.74	8.18	9.18
1978q3	62.01	12.44	5.81	8.19	9.21
1978q4	61.56	12.63	5.75	8.5	9.18
1979q1	61.83	12.93	5.62	8.59	9.33
1979q2	61.89	12.86	5.56	8.74	9.62
1979q3	62.24	13.16	5.52	9.01	9.89
1979q4	62.48	13.14	5.31	9.53	10.54
1980q1	62.71	13.26	4.92	9.85	11.17
1980q2	62.7	12.86	4.09	10.16	10.72
1980q3	63.52	12.96	4.17	10.22	10.02
1980q4	63.02	12.9	4.48	10.03	10.26
1981q1	62.03	12.88	4.3	10.01	10.47
1981q2	62.4	13.31	4.18	10	10.43
1981q3	61.82	13.48	3.79	9.51	9.75
1981q4	61.94	14.01	3.43	9.53	9.99
1982q1	63.33	13.91	3.29	9.2	9.71
1982q2	63.05	13.32	3.17	9.09	9.22
1982q3	63.87	12.8	3.16	8.54	9.44
1982q4	65	12.41	3.36	8	8.9
1983q1	64.86	11.84	3.88	8	8.73
1983q2	64.81	11.56	4.22	7.82	9.13
1983q3	64.88	11.69	4.53	7.75	9.57
1983q4	64.53	12.08	4.63	7.77	9.7
1984q1	63.72	12.08	4.64	7.69	10.18
1984q2	63.61	12.39	4.64	7.73	10.4
1984q3	63.47	12.59	4.56	7.69	10.3
1984q4	63.78	12.72	4.53	7.65	10.32
1985q1	64.22	12.63	4.45	7.41	9.64
1985q2	64.38	12.65	4.43	7.25	10.02
1985q3	64.74	12.25	4.43	6.94	9.72
1985q4	64.48	12.35	4.52	7.03	10.15
1986q1	64.54	12.02	4.7	7.12	10.03
1986q2	64.67	11.69	4.97	7.1	10.04
1986q3	65.28	11.43	5.03	7.13	10.23
1986q4	65.4	11.46	5.02	7.37	10.32
1987q1	65.2	10.99	4.99	7.3	10.36
1987q2	65.57	11.05	4.97	7.57	10.72
1987q3	65.89	11.21	4.91	7.8	10.86
1987q4	65	10.99	4.86	8.02	11.01
1988q1	65.77	11.03	4.73	8.45	10.97
1988q2	65.51	11.11	4.71	8.67	10.8
1988q3	65.75	11.03	4.66	8.8	10.75
1988q4	65.8	11.02	4.65	8.87	10.94
1989q1	65.42	11.02	4.56	9.02	10.85
1989q2	65.53	11.04	4.4	9.27	10.95
1989q3	65.64	11.24	4.31	9.19	10.62
1989q4	65.86	11.03	4.21	9.23	10.72
1990q1	65.82	10.97	4.18	9.4	10.87
1990q2	65.82	10.66	3.98	9.42	10.65
1990q3	66.32	10.7	3.74	9.5	10.84
1990q4	66.71	10.58	3.54	9.74	11.09
1991q1	66.48	10.33	3.32	9.76	10.46
1991q2	66.57	10.08	3.37	9.93	10.34
1991q3	66.53	9.84	3.48	9.98	10.36
1991q4	66.34	9.66	3.51	10.14	10.49
1992q1	66.86	9.45	3.62	10.12	10.35
1992q2	66.66	9.65	3.74	9.98	10.52
1992q3	66.83	9.7	3.72	10.06	10.68
1992q4	66.95	9.82	3.83	9.93	10.63
1993q1	66.93	9.82	3.86	9.86	10.62
1993q2	67.25	9.99	3.9	9.9	10.88
1993q3	67.58	10	4.03	9.76	10.83
1993q4	67.28	10.23	4.18	9.89	10.97
1994q1	67.2	10.2	4.24	9.86	10.98
1994q2	66.89	10.25	4.33	10.05	11.39
1994q3	67.16	10.33	4.28	10.36	11.76
1994q4	67.03	10.59	4.22	10.49	11.91
1995q1	66.85	10.93	4.13	10.7	12.1
1995q2	67.41	10.98	4	10.87	12.43
1995q3	67.42	10.91	4.09	11.18	12.23
1995q4	67.35	10.98	4.15	11.16	12.09
1996q1	67.45	11.04	4.22	11.12	12.23
1996q2	67.28	11.07	4.33	11.05	12.3
1996q3	67.2	11.3	4.32	10.94	12.43
1996q4	67.07	11.38	4.22	11.32	12.41
1997q1	67.15	11.46	4.2	11.33	12.6
1997q2	66.48	11.51	4.2	11.58	12.65
1997q3	66.69	11.88	4.19	11.64	12.83
1997q4	66.89	11.79	4.22	11.46	12.82
1998q1	66.77	11.93	4.26	11.24	12.75
1998q2	67.39	12.12	4.37	10.97	12.84
1998q3	67.4	12	4.47	10.68	12.66
1998q4	67.3	12.09	4.53	10.84	12.78
1999q1	67.3	12.14	4.56	10.59	12.88
1999q2	67.99	12.32	4.6	10.6	13.35
1999q3	68.04	12.36	4.59	10.74	13.8
1999q4	67.79	12.11	4.58	10.84	13.96
2000q1	68.68	12.4	4.66	10.96	14.55
2000q2	68.09	12.59	4.57	11.12	14.85
2000q3	68.79	12.65	4.49	11.38	15.44
2000q4	69.04	12.56	4.49	11.21	15.27
2001q1	69.41	12.27	4.55	10.98	14.9
2001q2	69.28	11.72	4.62	10.47	14.04
2001q3	69.64	11.52	4.71	9.9	13.47
2001q4	70.29	10.98	4.66	9.45	12.89
2002q1	69.97	10.5	4.71	9.45	13.06
2002q2	70.23	10.24	4.81	9.67	13.66
2002q3	70.26	10.08	4.8	9.72	13.84
2002q4	70.37	9.92	4.93	9.6	14.08
2003q1	70.51	9.75	5.04	9.46	14.12
2003q2	70.43	9.85	5.11	9.33	13.96
2003q3	70.2	9.86	5.28	9.39	13.85
2003q4	70.01	9.85	5.45	9.8	14.27
2004q1	70.14	9.73	5.53	9.93	14.68
2004q2	69.95	9.77	5.8	10.01	15.22
2004q3	70.05	9.92	5.87	10.05	15.39
2004q4	70.3	10.04	5.86	10.24	15.86
2005q1	69.99	10.1	5.95	10.3	15.86
2005q2	70.26	10.14	6.2	10.48	16.04
2005q3	70.36	10.15	6.29	10.44	16.23
2005q4	70.13	10.25	6.3	10.62	16.71

Figure 4. Prices and Interest Rates

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance deterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.
*Real rate is defined as the nominal rate minus the 4-quarter percent change in the CPI.

Data for Figure 4

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: 4-Quarter Percent Change in U.S. CPI	Panel 2, Line 1: Ratio of U.S. Nontraded Prices to Traded Prices	Panel 2, Line 2: Ratio of U.S. Services and Structures Prices to Goods Prices	Panel 3, Line 1: Nominal 10-Year Treasury Yield	Panel 3, Line 2: Real 10-Year Treasury Yield
1970q1	6.23	0.51	0.72	7.37	1.14
1970q2	6.04	0.51	0.72	7.71	1.67
1970q3	5.69	0.51	0.73	7.46	1.77
1970q4	5.6	0.52	0.73	6.85	1.25
1971q1	4.81	0.52	0.74	6.02	1.2
1971q2	4.31	0.53	0.74	6.25	1.93
1971q3	4.27	0.53	0.75	6.48	2.21
1971q4	3.54	0.54	0.75	5.89	2.35
1972q1	3.51	0.54	0.75	6.03	2.53
1972q2	3.23	0.55	0.76	6.14	2.92
1972q3	3.03	0.55	0.76	6.29	3.26
1972q4	3.33	0.55	0.76	6.37	3.04
1973q1	4.11	0.55	0.76	6.6	2.49
1973q2	5.61	0.55	0.76	6.81	1.2
1973q3	6.84	0.55	0.76	7.21	0.37
1973q4	8.42	0.55	0.76	6.75	-1.67
1974q1	9.91	0.55	0.76	7.05	-2.86
1974q2	10.55	0.56	0.75	7.54	-3
1974q3	11.46	0.56	0.75	7.96	-3.49
1974q4	12.05	0.55	0.75	7.67	-4.38
1975q1	11.13	0.55	0.75	7.54	-3.59
1975q2	9.54	0.56	0.75	8.05	-1.49
1975q3	8.68	0.55	0.75	8.3	-0.38
1975q4	7.38	0.56	0.75	8.06	0.68
1976q1	6.34	0.56	0.75	7.75	1.41
1976q2	6.02	0.57	0.76	7.77	1.76
1976q3	5.59	0.57	0.76	7.73	2.14
1976q4	5.19	0.57	0.76	7.19	2
1977q1	5.9	0.57	0.76	7.35	1.45
1977q2	6.8	0.58	0.76	7.37	0.57
1977q3	6.57	0.59	0.76	7.36	0.78
1977q4	6.59	0.59	0.76	7.6	1
1978q1	6.48	0.59	0.76	8.01	1.53
1978q2	7.03	0.59	0.76	8.32	1.29
1978q3	8.02	0.59	0.76	8.49	0.47
1978q4	8.93	0.59	0.76	8.82	-0.11
1979q1	9.78	0.59	0.76	9.11	-0.68
1979q2	10.75	0.59	0.76	9.11	-1.64
1979q3	11.72	0.6	0.76	9.1	-2.62
1979q4	12.64	0.61	0.76	10.45	-2.2
1980q1	14.21	0.61	0.77	11.99	-2.22
1980q2	14.43	0.62	0.77	10.48	-3.95
1980q3	12.94	0.62	0.77	10.95	-1.98
1980q4	12.54	0.62	0.77	12.42	-0.12
1981q1	11.26	0.63	0.77	12.96	1.7
1981q2	9.87	0.63	0.77	13.75	3.88
1981q3	10.85	0.63	0.78	14.85	3.99
1981q4	9.58	0.64	0.78	14.09	4.5
1982q1	7.58	0.65	0.78	14.29	6.71
1982q2	6.91	0.65	0.79	13.93	7.02
1982q3	5.82	0.66	0.79	13.12	7.3
1982q4	4.44	0.67	0.8	10.67	6.22
1983q1	3.59	0.67	0.8	10.56	6.97
1983q2	3.3	0.67	0.8	10.54	7.24
1983q3	2.53	0.67	0.8	11.63	9.1
1983q4	3.23	0.67	0.81	11.69	8.45
1984q1	4.63	0.68	0.81	11.94	7.32
1984q2	4.4	0.69	0.82	13.2	8.8
1984q3	4.3	0.69	0.82	12.87	8.57
1984q4	4.15	0.7	0.83	11.74	7.59
1985q1	3.64	0.7	0.84	11.58	7.94
1985q2	3.61	0.7	0.85	10.81	7.21
1985q3	3.35	0.71	0.85	10.34	6.98
1985q4	3.51	0.72	0.85	9.76	6.25
1986q1	3.11	0.72	0.85	8.56	5.45
1986q2	1.68	0.73	0.85	7.6	5.92
1986q3	1.67	0.73	0.86	7.31	5.64
1986q4	1.35	0.74	0.87	7.26	5.92
1987q1	2.04	0.74	0.88	7.19	5.16
1987q2	3.7	0.74	0.89	8.34	4.64
1987q3	4.16	0.75	0.9	8.88	4.71
1987q4	4.41	0.75	0.9	9.12	4.72
1988q1	3.97	0.76	0.9	8.42	4.45
1988q2	3.98	0.76	0.9	8.91	4.93
1988q3	4.14	0.76	0.9	9.1	4.96
1988q4	4.31	0.76	0.9	8.96	4.65
1989q1	4.67	0.77	0.9	9.21	4.53
1989q2	5.16	0.77	0.9	8.77	3.61
1989q3	4.71	0.77	0.89	8.11	3.4
1989q4	4.63	0.77	0.89	7.91	3.28
1990q1	5.23	0.77	0.89	8.42	3.19
1990q2	4.58	0.78	0.89	8.68	4.09
1990q3	5.56	0.78	0.9	8.7	3.14
1990q4	6.28	0.79	0.9	8.4	2.12
1991q1	5.26	0.79	0.9	8.02	2.76
1991q2	4.85	0.78	0.91	8.13	3.28
1991q3	3.85	0.79	0.91	7.94	4.09
1991q4	2.97	0.79	0.9	7.35	4.38
1992q1	2.89	0.8	0.9	7.3	4.41
1992q2	3.07	0.81	0.9	7.38	4.3
1992q3	3.07	0.81	0.9	6.62	3.54
1992q4	3.12	0.82	0.9	6.74	3.62
1993q1	3.17	0.82	0.9	6.28	3.11
1993q2	3.12	0.83	0.91	5.99	2.87
1993q3	2.82	0.83	0.91	5.62	2.8
1993q4	2.77	0.83	0.92	5.61	2.84
1994q1	2.54	0.84	0.92	6.07	3.53
1994q2	2.38	0.84	0.93	7.08	4.7
1994q3	2.86	0.85	0.93	7.33	4.48
1994q4	2.6	0.85	0.93	7.84	5.23
1995q1	2.84	0.86	0.93	7.48	4.64
1995q2	3.1	0.87	0.93	6.62	3.52
1995q3	2.66	0.87	0.93	6.32	3.66
1995q4	2.63	0.88	0.93	5.89	3.27
1996q1	2.78	0.88	0.92	5.91	3.13
1996q2	2.83	0.88	0.92	6.72	3.89
1996q3	2.9	0.89	0.92	6.78	3.88
1996q4	3.23	0.9	0.92	6.34	3.11
1997q1	2.94	0.9	0.92	6.56	3.62
1997q2	2.3	0.91	0.92	6.7	4.39
1997q3	2.23	0.91	0.93	6.24	4.02
1997q4	1.89	0.92	0.93	5.91	4.02
1998q1	1.48	0.93	0.94	5.59	4.1
1998q2	1.58	0.94	0.94	5.6	4.01
1998q3	1.6	0.94	0.95	5.2	3.61
1998q4	1.53	0.95	0.96	4.67	3.14
1999q1	1.69	0.95	0.97	4.98	3.3
1999q2	2.11	0.96	0.97	5.54	3.43
1999q3	2.35	0.97	0.98	5.88	3.54
1999q4	2.62	0.98	0.99	6.14	3.52
2000q1	3.26	0.99	0.99	6.48	3.22
2000q2	3.29	1	1	6.18	2.88
2000q3	3.47	1	1	5.89	2.42
2000q4	3.44	1.01	1.01	5.57	2.12
2001q1	3.41	1.02	1.01	5.05	1.64
2001q2	3.32	1.02	1.02	5.27	1.95
2001q3	2.68	1.03	1.03	4.98	2.3
2001q4	1.87	1.03	1.03	4.77	2.9
2002q1	1.25	1.04	1.04	5.08	3.83
2002q2	1.3	1.05	1.05	5.1	3.8
2002q3	1.58	1.06	1.06	4.26	2.68
2002q4	2.23	1.07	1.06	4.01	1.77
2003q1	2.88	1.09	1.06	3.92	1.04
2003q2	2.15	1.1	1.06	3.62	1.47
2003q3	2.22	1.11	1.07	4.23	2.02
2003q4	1.89	1.12	1.07	4.29	2.39
2004q1	1.82	1.13	1.08	4.02	2.2
2004q2	2.8	1.13	1.08	4.6	1.8
2004q3	2.71	1.15	1.09	4.3	1.59
2004q4	3.34	1.16	1.1	4.17	0.84
2005q1	3.04	1.17	1.1	4.3	1.26
2005q2	2.95	1.18	1.1	4.16	1.21
2005q3	3.8	1.2	1.1	4.21	0.41
2005q4	3.73	1.22	1.09	4.49	0.76

Figure 5. Foreign External Balances*

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance eterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.
*Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Data for Figure 5

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: Trade Balance as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 1, Line 2: Current Account Balance as Share of Nominal GDP	Panel 2, Line 1: Multilateral Real Exchange Rate Index
1970q1	0.7345287	0.9251762	97.96098
1970q2	0.3986413	0.643065	98.11153
1970q3	0.5305574	0.2004895	98.34296
1970q4	0.751668	0.6831108	98.25645
1971q1	0.8481681	0.8375135	98.60307
1971q2	1.044374	0.8167231	98.74982
1971q3	1.374844	1.370004	98.74915
1971q4	0.9442737	0.942073	98.74314
1972q1	1.05928	0.8161592	98.73896
1972q2	1.275251	1.037644	99.12555
1972q3	0.9572813	0.7342547	99.12138
1972q4	1.265208	0.8409593	99.03554
1973q1	0.9062433	0.6970767	99.47479
1973q2	0.6105474	0.5241892	100.1824
1973q3	0.191255	-0.0121398	101.5015
1973q4	-0.1777113	-0.1429387	101.6022
1974q1	-0.9925855	-0.9572389	101.3276
1974q2	-1.431044	-1.592608	101.0959
1974q3	-0.9891299	-1.203454	101.1307
1974q4	-0.4680047	-0.6169781	100.3214
1975q1	0.0275687	-0.4036511	101.3155
1975q2	0.2686255	-0.289354	101.9156
1975q3	-0.2130627	-0.6555875	101.3123
1975q4	-0.3239981	-0.6664645	101.6335
1976q1	-0.1473549	-0.3732462	101.6797
1976q2	-0.3391595	-0.8021771	102.0358
1976q3	-0.3424317	-0.7050852	101.7244
1976q4	-0.4968322	-0.790175	101.9104
1977q1	-0.1930357	-0.5078651	100.6101
1977q2	0.0247308	-0.5768743	100.5672
1977q3	0.3912754	-0.2199516	99.95228
1977q4	0.9202025	0.4266805	99.78859
1978q1	1.202909	0.6185917	99.55778
1978q2	1.255512	0.7355767	100.2087
1978q3	1.168506	0.7351419	101.168
1978q4	0.6955953	0.5220909	101.1749
1979q1	0.3346029	0.2015473	100.4278
1979q2	-0.05825	-0.2423192	100.1634
1979q3	-0.3378477	-0.8689775	100.3254
1979q4	-0.7651607	-1.39714	100.5586
1980q1	-0.9388017	-1.44735	100.5966
1980q2	-1.391192	-1.823489	100.2128
1980q3	-0.9378158	-1.35967	100.5855
1980q4	-0.5946723	-1.083814	99.84296
1981q1	-0.3052255	-0.9449087	98.84025
1981q2	-0.1066394	-0.8626195	98.006
1981q3	0.0259063	-0.9918813	97.02126
1981q4	0.0527873	-0.7333586	97.67706
1982q1	0.1523677	-0.4341816	97.20695
1982q2	0.2005776	-0.6275088	97.05764
1982q3	0.1732693	-0.4174353	96.20099
1982q4	0.354388	-0.2362083	96.13933
1983q1	0.7748852	0.0561742	96.07671
1983q2	1.020168	0.3466763	95.70145
1983q3	1.12543	0.4405686	95.53429
1983q4	0.9851358	0.2531413	96.15031
1984q1	1.335591	0.7533929	95.50078
1984q2	1.294339	0.5340008	95.18951
1984q3	1.376534	0.6382564	93.97698
1984q4	1.71643	1.217648	94.11153
1985q1	1.308416	0.6642185	91.92475
1985q2	1.872468	1.240401	92.30178
1985q3	1.78207	1.142346	93.90299
1985q4	2.011873	1.445754	95.61514
1986q1	1.844459	1.450316	97.29332
1986q2	2.073871	1.663357	99.11726
1986q3	2.268733	1.834629	100.9063
1986q4	2.207872	1.715585	100.8835
1987q1	1.984025	1.5857	101.2932
1987q2	1.583254	1.260677	102.8143
1987q3	1.482293	1.068615	102.0164
1987q4	1.222211	0.6570034	103.8191
1988q1	1.137177	0.7029295	103.5562
1988q2	1.078536	0.9202702	104.3143
1988q3	0.9451265	0.5788035	103.074
1988q4	1.047069	0.6619157	105.2332
1989q1	0.8283177	0.6408297	102.3087
1989q2	0.503073	0.2076081	100.9826
1989q3	0.5301463	0.1239234	100.4145
1989q4	0.3006237	0.0429453	100.8093
1990q1	0.5303796	0.0366028	101.2056
1990q2	0.5026362	-0.1112887	101.2069
1990q3	1.022226	0.0552875	102.2706
1990q4	0.7968722	-0.4079719	103.6762
1991q1	0.2661599	-0.590567	102.8351
1991q2	0.2075536	-0.297335	102.1163
1991q3	0.3225412	-0.2094824	102.0594
1991q4	0.5384893	0.0754067	103.3505
1992q1	0.5825884	-0.2250278	102.8621
1992q2	0.4671693	-0.0964158	102.6118
1992q3	0.7601125	0.0306784	103.6097
1992q4	0.7308769	0.4019281	101.847
1993q1	1.306086	0.7033807	101.1416
1993q2	1.372753	0.782846	103.2334
1993q3	1.505224	1.082206	103.626
1993q4	1.702034	1.099985	102.0387
1994q1	1.690026	1.182991	103.4194
1994q2	1.60838	0.9266155	104.4981
1994q3	1.485273	0.7977604	105.2694
1994q4	1.441067	0.7121252	104.9341
1995q1	1.74422	1.242301	105.7344
1995q2	1.568181	0.9395044	109.8853
1995q3	1.487627	0.8461778	105.5044
1995q4	1.58981	0.8718836	103.1989
1996q1	1.535249	1.047206	101.6082
1996q2	1.517003	0.7964131	100.8225
1996q3	1.655316	1.099902	100.5362
1996q4	1.681733	1.096186	99.68931
1997q1	1.64913	1.129083	97.3969
1997q2	1.950552	1.493717	97.60912
1997q3	1.965128	1.484177	97.86161
1997q4	2.110638	1.682279	98.74153
1998q1	1.715697	1.114028	99.74646
1998q2	1.864769	1.420211	98.10557
1998q3	1.786917	1.394717	97.90609
1998q4	1.572017	1.043801	100.532
1999q1	1.386475	0.755285	100.5792
1999q2	1.429511	1.083295	99.38945
1999q3	1.387504	0.8570431	100.523
1999q4	1.375962	0.656108	102.4572
2000q1	1.339368	0.9322674	100.8225
2000q2	1.364374	0.8211437	100.4545
2000q3	1.252276	0.5697715	99.7756
2000q4	1.265975	0.6289054	98.99839
2001q1	1.377118	0.9100267	97.37389
2001q2	1.221911	0.5511259	96.29791
2001q3	1.193323	0.9388729	96.65643
2001q4	1.786223	1.169952	96.30154
2002q1	1.906232	1.395748	94.53258
2002q2	1.943098	1.10674	95.99431
2002q3	1.967693	1.424571	97.92998
2002q4	1.878186	1.076751	97.98336
2003q1	1.490752	1.031691	99.28227
2003q2	1.617038	1.20137	100.3302
2003q3	1.941767	1.497122	100.3855
2003q4	1.871998	1.540743	102.6799
2004q1	2.019307	1.613898	103.5538
2004q2	1.951531	1.851152	102.24
2004q3	1.567763	1.299497	102.4088
2004q4	1.421827	1.327618	103.9023
2005q1	1.449114	0.9996589	103.3826
2005q2	1.32435	1.233837	102.4348
2005q3	1.108644	0.773488	101.5362
2005q4	1.270317	0.8232111	100.6982

Figure 6. Components of Foreign Real GDP*

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance eterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.
*Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Data for Figure 6

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real GDP	Panel 1, Line 2: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Domestic Demand	Panel 1, Line 3: 4-Quarter Percentage Point Contribution of Real Net Exports to Foreign GDP Growth	Panel 2, Line 1: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Consumption	Panel 2, Line 2: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Investment	Panel 2, Line 3: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Residential Investment	Panel 3, Line 1: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Exports	Panel 3, Line 2: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign Real Imports
1970q1	6.88	8.73	0.08	5.69	25.61	14.66	13.51	14.67
1970q2	6.31	8.32	-0.46	5.13	23.65	13.94	11.58	17.32
1970q3	5.7	7.8	-0.74	5.76	21.37	9.28	9.22	16.43
1970q4	4.03	6.49	-0.32	4.91	16.73	10.2	10.85	13.36
1971q1	3.9	3.97	-0.09	4.36	5.46	7.6	9.91	10.58
1971q2	3.38	3.24	0.23	5.16	-1.33	5.85	9.77	6.92
1971q3	3.69	3.17	0.52	4.6	-0.67	5.85	11.29	5.05
1971q4	3.56	3.58	0.08	4.74	1.07	6.53	7.01	4.41
1972q1	4.99	5.2	-0.03	6.07	3.08	9.25	7.93	7.83
1972q2	5.09	5.14	-0.02	5.48	6.69	9.39	7.1	8.29
1972q3	4.6	4.97	-0.44	5.79	5.12	10.31	4.88	10.01
1972q4	6.09	5.69	0	6.03	8.22	10.73	13.86	15.57
1973q1	7.25	7.16	-0.13	6.85	38.25	10.57	11.99	14.32
1973q2	6.67	6.85	-0.36	6.14	37.98	8.43	12.3	17.13
1973q3	6.32	6.75	-0.41	5.19	41.28	5.66	11.66	16.44
1973q4	5.44	6.68	-0.63	5.25	40.65	5.15	5.92	13.06
1974q1	2.64	2.66	0.11	1.87	9.03	1.59	10.41	9.93
1974q2	2.09	2.19	0.17	2.45	6.03	-5.75	9.93	6.3
1974q3	1.98	1.53	0.58	2.59	1.46	-5.38	11.95	4.9
1974q4	-0.32	-1.09	0.81	0.38	-6.33	-7.23	9.19	-0.75
1975q1	-0.48	-1.18	0.43	2.39	-13.7	-8.36	0.13	-6.57
1975q2	-0.32	-0.96	0.61	2.27	-14.76	-0.41	-1.76	-7.51
1975q3	-0.3	-0.6	0.2	2.16	-12.76	1.12	-4.03	-6.47
1975q4	1.87	1.79	0.02	3.95	-5.61	2.82	-0.65	-1.25
1976q1	3.91	4.46	-0.06	3.77	7.25	7.25	7.72	7.9
1976q2	4.4	5.12	-0.25	3.66	12.24	6.35	11.08	11.74
1976q3	4.51	5.15	0.09	3.92	13.07	5.78	13.04	11.77
1976q4	4.5	5	-0.02	4.01	13.18	4.33	12.45	11.59
1977q1	3.8	3.38	0.24	3.52	7.13	3.24	9.29	6.23
1977q2	2.98	2.33	0.56	3.28	3.24	1.24	8.33	3.76
1977q3	2.62	1.67	0.54	2.97	-0.7	1.41	7.37	2.41
1977q4	2.6	1.63	0.92	2.79	-1.73	4.11	6.1	-0.3
1978q1	2.64	2.21	0.76	3.18	-1.35	5.52	6.47	1.58
1978q2	3.37	3.11	0.49	3.42	0.54	6.38	5.94	3.57
1978q3	3.71	3.92	0.16	3.86	5.25	4.24	4.6	4.87
1978q4	4.03	4.65	-0.52	4.11	8.9	2.91	4.37	10.67
1979q1	3.75	4.46	-0.62	4.23	9.13	-2.25	4.79	12.44
1979q2	4.63	5.58	-0.71	5.42	12.16	9.44	6.38	13
1979q3	4.25	4.81	-0.48	3.9	12.14	10.46	8.14	12.38
1979q4	3.75	3.96	-0.14	3.36	9.68	10.47	9.14	8.06
1980q1	4.12	3.64	0.26	3.31	6.32	12.68	11.68	6.76
1980q2	1.57	1.2	0.13	0.46	3.5	-1.67	5.37	2.08
1980q3	1.36	1.3	0.19	1.64	3.88	-2.05	2.73	-0.71
1980q4	0.68	0.4	0.54	1.11	7.17	-4.48	2.41	-2.24
1981q1	0.14	0.05	0.59	0.26	7.01	-5.55	-0.03	-3.98
1981q2	1.15	0.17	1.21	1.05	4.22	-1.38	6.45	-1
1981q3	1.72	0.25	1.42	0.72	0.83	-1.16	10.98	2.53
1981q4	1.51	0.5	0.99	1.14	-4.88	-3.12	8.06	3.95
1982q1	1.33	0.76	0.5	1.47	-1.29	-2.9	6.59	5.53
1982q2	1.51	1.2	0.2	1.75	1.16	-3.71	2.27	2.94
1982q3	0.61	0.64	-0.09	1.19	1.59	-3.63	-1.55	-0.15
1982q4	0.64	0.62	0.23	1.71	-0.58	0.67	-0.31	-2.43
1983q1	0.93	0.47	0.33	1.69	-2.22	1.49	-0.13	-3.19
1983q2	1.12	0.91	0.39	1.62	0.32	0.26	2.07	-1.18
1983q3	2.2	1.83	0.46	2.19	3.75	0.91	4.64	0.88
1983q4	2.98	2.65	0.2	1.75	10.28	0.03	7.53	6.82
1984q1	3.52	2.99	0.45	2.13	11.83	1.71	11.08	9.61
1984q2	3	2.72	0.3	2.18	9.34	1.74	10.43	9.23
1984q3	3.29	2.87	0.38	2.05	8.71	1.41	11.28	11.41
1984q4	2.97	2.25	0.6	1.88	6	1.62	9.64	7.07
1985q1	3	3.01	0.16	2.34	7.64	-1.17	6.65	6.66
1985q2	3.71	3.1	0.53	2.78	7.15	1.77	7.87	5.43
1985q3	3.58	3.52	0.16	3.41	7.21	3.17	4.44	3.04
1985q4	3.97	4.31	-0.06	4.32	8.29	2.5	3.13	2.79
1986q1	2.79	3.28	-0.33	3.57	4.38	2.56	0.04	1.26
1986q2	3.11	4.38	-0.88	4.1	9.2	5.39	-0.32	5.94
1986q3	2.91	4.06	-0.84	4.05	7.18	6.95	-0.14	6.32
1986q4	2.47	3.56	-0.87	3.14	6.83	9.73	-0.24	7.67
1987q1	2.44	3.28	-0.67	3.33	6.13	8.31	1.57	8.25
1987q2	2.56	3.43	-0.73	3.44	4.53	10.02	0.22	7.45
1987q3	3.21	3.85	-0.55	3.51	7.54	11.82	4.18	10.32
1987q4	4.23	5.11	-0.78	4.55	10.25	12.48	4.78	12.11
1988q1	5.55	6.41	-0.55	4.65	16.06	18.52	5.43	12.77
1988q2	4.88	5.3	-0.48	4	13.78	11.28	6.77	12.84
1988q3	4.87	5.42	-0.53	4.11	13.87	6.45	6.24	12.38
1988q4	4.35	4.77	-0.35	3.6	12.89	5.32	6.25	11
1989q1	4.7	5.11	-0.45	4.59	11.37	4.82	9.08	14.99
1989q2	4.2	4.58	-0.23	3.5	11.49	2.76	9.5	12.82
1989q3	3.57	3.93	-0.21	3.54	7.37	1.87	6.76	10.12
1989q4	3.94	4.35	-0.36	4.12	7.6	0.96	6.84	11.16
1990q1	3.26	3.3	-0.03	3.09	4.97	0.61	6.91	7.78
1990q2	4.15	4.3	-0.12	4.33	5.33	1.13	5.84	7.07
1990q3	3.78	3.61	0.36	3.5	4.4	1.93	6.84	5.75
1990q4	2.9	2.15	0.62	2.28	1.42	1.33	8.16	5.53
1991q1	2.41	1.99	0.5	1.91	2	-3.35	4.4	1.08
1991q2	1.48	1.17	0.24	1.66	-1.12	-3.28	3.27	1.47
1991q3	1.19	0.93	-0.04	1.37	-1.37	-4.66	3.76	2.93
1991q4	1.28	1.47	0.13	2.18	-1.7	-5.43	2.98	0.8
1992q1	1.54	1.82	-0.13	2.54	-0.62	-1.68	5.12	5.01
1992q2	1.27	1.37	0.16	1.98	-1.19	0.04	5.29	3.83
1992q3	1.22	1.31	0.17	2.05	-1.21	1.33	3.54	1.61
1992q4	0.43	0.25	0.21	1.33	-4.71	1.56	2.4	0.21
1993q1	-0.03	-0.66	0.8	0.34	-7.08	-1.54	1.54	-2.93
1993q2	-0.04	-0.83	0.91	0.12	-5.99	-1.29	1.26	-3.41
1993q3	-0.02	-0.58	0.75	0.53	-5.35	0.96	1.65	-1.65
1993q4	0.51	-0.06	0.73	1.18	-3.77	4.32	2.74	0.73
1994q1	1.47	1.09	0.31	2.24	-0.83	5.51	5.07	4.61
1994q2	2.12	1.93	0.14	2.29	3.22	7.4	7.38	8.31
1994q3	2.91	2.83	0.03	2.75	6.75	8.63	8.52	9.94
1994q4	2.94	3.09	-0.18	2.01	10.5	4.9	9.39	11.32
1995q1	2.29	2.22	0.14	1.49	8.78	4.08	8.69	10.05
1995q2	2.65	2.68	0	2.46	6.91	-0.02	7.88	9.66
1995q3	2.32	2.52	-0.16	1.87	5.78	-4.56	6.36	9.64
1995q4	2.15	2.27	-0.15	1.96	3.39	-3.18	4.99	8.68
1996q1	1.98	2.43	-0.42	2.65	1.26	-1.22	4.6	9.02
1996q2	1.88	2.05	-0.14	1.9	2.01	5.37	4.02	7.7
1996q3	1.87	1.62	0.25	1.88	2.13	8.66	5.84	6.33
1996q4	2.39	2	0.39	2.12	4.74	9.89	8.33	6.58
1997q1	2.65	2.28	0.35	2.22	7.21	7.31	8.59	6.36
1997q2	2.47	1.92	0.59	1.67	7.45	0.7	12.48	7.34
1997q3	2.26	1.71	0.54	1.95	4.56	-3.23	11.67	7.79
1997q4	2.4	2.08	0.41	2.01	7.27	-5.19	10.06	6.66
1998q1	1.86	2.03	-0.08	1.29	8.51	-3.44	7.64	7.11
1998q2	1.55	1.92	-0.31	2.15	5.01	-2.1	4.15	4.99
1998q3	1.87	2.5	-0.51	2.44	5.76	-0.63	2.85	4.05
1998q4	1.28	2.09	-0.78	2.44	1.14	-1.68	0.25	3.21
1999q1	1.57	2.19	-0.58	2.87	-1.22	-0.66	0.55	3.18
1999q2	1.95	2.5	-0.52	2.77	0.37	2.38	2.03	4.98
1999q3	2.14	2.45	-0.27	2.68	1.96	4.65	5.35	7.13
1999q4	2.91	2.93	0.03	2.9	4.86	5.3	8.76	9.71
2000q1	3.86	3.25	0.58	3.11	7.27	6.18	12.34	9.26
2000q2	4.07	3.57	0.49	3.14	8.54	3.13	12.86	10.46
2000q3	3.63	3.31	0.36	2.55	8.6	0.45	11.26	9.82
2000q4	3.25	2.79	0.43	2.07	7.55	0.6	10.62	9.7
2001q1	2.62	2.55	0.14	2.05	5.38	-0.28	5.85	7.64
2001q2	1.72	1.8	-0.03	1.96	2.3	-2.57	1.22	3.33
2001q3	1.12	1.13	0.01	1.91	-1.21	-1.11	-2.13	-0.47
2001q4	0.48	0.28	0.22	1.78	-6.25	-0.48	-4.54	-4.36
2002q1	0.13	-0.15	0.28	1.25	-6.53	-1.24	-1.88	-3.18
2002q2	0.85	0.43	0.47	1.41	-4.43	1.66	3.11	0.23
2002q3	1.52	1.25	0.36	1.83	-1.49	2.44	5.13	3.16
2002q4	1.69	1.92	-0.15	1.78	2.8	2.28	6.36	5.85
2003q1	1.42	2.03	-0.49	1.56	5.62	2.37	4.88	6.01
2003q2	1.04	1.69	-0.59	1.31	4.18	1.47	0.62	2.38
2003q3	1.11	1.37	-0.28	1.17	3.13	1.73	2.34	2.26
2003q4	1.82	2.08	-0.24	1.46	5.87	1.92	4.06	3.74
2004q1	2.54	2.29	0.29	2.2	3.42	3.85	6.3	4.49
2004q2	2.67	2.32	0.34	2.23	4.79	4.65	9.84	8.03
2004q3	2.31	2.63	-0.34	2.11	7.49	3.54	7.83	8.64
2004q4	1.62	2.08	-0.45	2.05	4.72	3.99	6.13	7.96
2005q1	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2005q2	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2005q3	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
2005q4	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Figure 7. Components of Foreign Nominal GDP*

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance eterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.
*Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Data for Figure 7

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: Foreign Nominal Consumption as Share of GDP	Panel 2, Line 1: Foreign Nominal Investment as Share of GDP	Panel 2, Line 2: Foreign Nominal Residential Investment as Share of GDP	Panel 3, Line 1: Foreign Nominal Exports as Share of GDP	Panel 3, Line 2: Foreign Nominal Imports as Share of GDP
1970q1	55.46152	23.57394	7.653125	19.78542	19.05089
1970q2	54.91537	23.91446	7.636157	19.65428	19.25564
1970q3	54.88383	23.83406	7.645192	19.68013	19.14958
1970q4	55.22695	22.98678	7.624334	19.87652	19.12485
1971q1	55.04417	22.80759	7.648018	19.83211	18.98394
1971q2	55.44659	22.11073	7.708619	19.90726	18.86289
1971q3	55.24851	22.0635	7.741112	20.17962	18.80478
1971q4	55.58208	21.91665	7.84095	19.50414	18.55987
1972q1	55.28859	21.79782	7.945551	19.3873	18.32802
1972q2	55.29337	21.706	8.07136	19.46205	18.1868
1972q3	55.60146	21.73122	8.262756	19.25872	18.30144
1972q4	55.33546	21.79637	8.274316	20.15888	18.89367
1973q1	54.76063	22.65902	8.29694	19.76404	18.8578
1973q2	54.75146	23.45871	8.466888	20.05106	19.44051
1973q3	54.7323	23.7567	8.452985	20.44769	20.25643
1973q4	54.78177	23.86776	8.511551	20.98272	21.16043
1974q1	54.82046	24.80232	8.439452	22.80271	23.79529
1974q2	54.93397	24.39805	7.902503	23.53952	24.97056
1974q3	55.02651	23.83604	7.850221	24.08951	25.07864
1974q4	55.30598	22.26213	7.80812	23.78713	24.25514
1975q1	56.23954	20.41387	7.544971	22.85201	22.82444
1975q2	56.44467	19.8603	7.539855	22.08684	21.81822
1975q3	56.62166	19.99161	7.594727	21.67596	21.88902
1975q4	56.5962	20.09612	7.529351	21.8786	22.20259
1976q1	56.40649	20.40856	7.548645	22.47476	22.62211
1976q2	56.06056	21.02177	7.49833	22.76696	23.10612
1976q3	56.18221	21.15226	7.57352	23.12624	23.46867
1976q4	56.33154	21.3264	7.480774	23.38026	23.8771
1977q1	56.1088	21.03707	7.455993	23.12509	23.31813
1977q2	56.31326	20.68589	7.344444	23.20555	23.18081
1977q3	56.55718	19.96871	7.394448	23.26517	22.8739
1977q4	56.18904	19.84097	7.476241	22.97267	22.05247
1978q1	55.95949	19.62683	7.581237	22.70345	21.50054
1978q2	55.82395	19.67298	7.465566	22.34011	21.0846
1978q3	55.99133	19.61518	7.346684	21.80104	20.63254
1978q4	56.09029	20.19506	7.389077	21.97708	21.28149
1979q1	56.25664	20.26461	7.113143	22.34326	22.00865
1979q2	56.62573	20.5921	7.409631	23.07079	23.12904
1979q3	56.31084	21.02938	7.386709	23.70451	24.04236
1979q4	56.39021	21.30414	7.381189	24.45297	25.21813
1980q1	56.45932	20.84745	7.25006	25.08135	26.02015
1980q2	56.4976	21.06048	7.181626	24.33015	25.72134
1980q3	56.82642	20.98029	7.105556	23.93703	24.87485
1980q4	57.22087	20.34806	7.060668	24.06964	24.66431
1981q1	56.99576	20.09281	6.879175	24.07756	24.38279
1981q2	56.98876	19.53388	6.935617	24.84264	24.94928
1981q3	56.72744	19.32832	6.811571	25.29431	25.2684
1981q4	56.90042	19.09451	6.571591	25.06589	25.0131
1982q1	56.94263	19.07032	6.473159	25.02783	24.87546
1982q2	57.15574	18.879	6.424683	24.73731	24.53673
1982q3	57.30291	18.66016	6.392524	24.64174	24.46847
1982q4	57.94924	17.93715	6.425633	24.60944	24.25505
1983q1	57.54552	17.79623	6.363743	24.15034	23.37545
1983q2	57.54324	17.71349	6.223547	24.35141	23.33124
1983q3	57.24157	18.00567	6.162565	24.49667	23.37123
1983q4	57.17718	18.4758	6.08307	24.75842	23.77328
1984q1	57.01242	18.41146	6.092004	25.42634	24.09075
1984q2	57.13787	18.28893	6.041632	25.46571	24.17137
1984q3	56.71451	18.78074	5.975469	26.07956	24.70303
1984q4	56.5241	18.74561	5.904215	26.2372	24.52077
1985q1	56.64487	19.17772	5.751666	26.29019	24.98177
1985q2	56.65736	18.72857	5.77001	26.43952	24.56705
1985q3	56.55977	18.94844	5.780041	25.71839	23.93632
1985q4	56.48841	18.93332	5.672812	24.84559	22.83372
1986q1	56.67683	18.91667	5.598683	23.7088	21.86434
1986q2	56.45998	19.21152	5.646277	22.73458	20.66071
1986q3	56.4165	18.99953	5.757801	22.07621	19.80747
1986q4	56.34912	18.97908	5.868011	22.19174	19.98387
1987q1	56.75448	18.79972	5.730722	22.1702	20.18617
1987q2	56.8763	19.06101	5.938241	21.73388	20.15062
1987q3	56.63317	19.40947	6.118532	22.07804	20.59575
1987q4	56.4604	19.96861	6.191113	21.75701	20.5348
1988q1	56.05089	20.49218	6.324908	21.08247	19.94529
1988q2	56.24396	20.58446	6.281534	21.44883	20.3703
1988q3	56.0429	21.0937	6.214005	21.69613	20.75101
1988q4	55.74818	21.52457	6.261292	21.67133	20.62426
1989q1	55.94396	21.60416	6.343192	21.97606	21.14775
1989q2	55.91885	21.8736	6.195427	22.4967	21.99363
1989q3	56.01146	21.62737	6.102959	22.47214	21.942
1989q4	55.94031	22.02756	6.063583	22.40089	22.10027
1990q1	55.92186	21.53987	6.082476	22.99974	22.46936
1990q2	55.93386	21.61125	5.970138	22.83377	22.33113
1990q3	55.89951	20.96472	5.922122	22.90994	21.88771
1990q4	55.90029	21.05345	5.894102	23.14708	22.35021
1991q1	56.03641	21.28187	5.688766	20.6851	20.41894
1991q2	56.49647	20.88323	5.661876	21.17562	20.96807
1991q3	56.5042	20.69036	5.559049	21.33324	21.0107
1991q4	56.67411	20.11144	5.466574	21.20907	20.67058
1992q1	56.66125	20.0259	5.498688	21.17701	20.59442
1992q2	56.99466	19.61048	5.496353	21.09763	20.63046
1992q3	57.09731	19.11942	5.484084	21.23176	20.47165
1992q4	57.20341	18.82138	5.472482	20.98601	20.25513
1993q1	56.9361	18.49911	5.367581	20.83183	19.52575
1993q2	57.0793	18.19931	5.395205	20.41288	19.04012
1993q3	57.1991	17.96341	5.492739	20.29357	18.78835
1993q4	57.63608	17.44834	5.640676	20.76054	19.0585
1994q1	57.18084	17.70442	5.55138	20.91934	19.22932
1994q2	57.0035	18.07454	5.664971	21.25319	19.64481
1994q3	57.13775	18.2821	5.799885	21.45003	19.96475
1994q4	56.96824	18.4276	5.742507	22.01875	20.57768
1995q1	56.8298	18.53203	5.635566	22.58587	20.84165
1995q2	56.8628	18.63882	5.505866	22.12835	20.56017
1995q3	56.79847	18.60778	5.376007	22.64441	21.15678
1995q4	56.89009	18.37908	5.398043	23.29312	21.7033
1996q1	57.25455	17.95339	5.339307	23.64403	22.10878
1996q2	57.13777	18.16239	5.550661	23.56552	22.04851
1996q3	57.09426	18.31276	5.60374	23.85304	22.19773
1996q4	57.1741	18.45171	5.65661	24.47624	22.79451
1997q1	57.47432	18.36878	5.458511	24.96254	23.31341
1997q2	56.97874	18.60654	5.316023	25.4948	23.54424
1997q3	57.28322	18.27418	5.162864	25.74289	23.77776
1997q4	57.10052	18.66142	5.103789	26.3455	24.23487
1998q1	57.23743	18.96605	5.098567	26.35887	24.64317
1998q2	57.4006	18.61598	5.076954	26.73936	24.8746
1998q3	57.6063	18.35021	5.026062	26.73083	24.94392
1998q4	57.69872	18.08993	4.92357	25.59296	24.02094
1999q1	57.92141	17.98867	4.935745	25.22414	23.83766
1999q2	57.89596	17.97767	5.02251	25.72305	24.29354
1999q3	57.94789	18.04193	5.052596	26.11253	24.72503
1999q4	57.87827	18.24644	4.968508	26.30099	24.92503
2000q1	57.70592	18.46903	4.989335	26.96639	25.62703
2000q2	57.521	18.67902	4.920552	27.46173	26.09736
2000q3	57.52707	18.79503	4.81076	28.10403	26.85176
2000q4	57.47363	18.8709	4.739411	28.90655	27.64057
2001q1	57.46275	18.6399	4.757283	29.06752	27.6904
2001q2	57.85464	18.36756	4.657353	28.6241	27.40219
2001q3	58.13104	17.99368	4.684439	28.03403	26.84071
2001q4	58.08945	17.25908	4.675922	27.87907	26.09285
2002q1	57.95073	17.13121	4.652703	28.26047	26.35424
2002q2	57.97588	17.10938	4.669862	28.67112	26.72802
2002q3	57.96811	17.10101	4.678696	28.40487	26.43718
2002q4	57.92582	17.15175	4.673775	28.6364	26.75821
2003q1	58.03814	17.44731	4.689666	28.63876	27.14801
2003q2	57.89712	17.31174	4.699217	28.06588	26.44884
2003q3	57.76669	17.17695	4.726663	28.16342	26.22165
2003q4	57.6553	17.49705	4.712157	28.29716	26.42517
2004q1	57.67354	17.39509	4.799337	28.71431	26.695
2004q2	57.67328	17.50114	4.820161	29.48918	27.53765
2004q3	57.74118	17.9179	4.829163	29.76414	28.19638
2004q4	57.70013	17.95563	4.862289	30.08741	28.66558
2005q1	57.7052	18.0356	4.832232	29.87033	28.42121
2005q2	57.58689	18.22929	4.864941	30.41022	29.08587
2005q3	57.66957	18.26724	4.908728	31.1297	30.02105
2005q4	57.38102	18.28306	4.925712	31.79619	30.52588

Figure 8. Foreign Prices and Interest Rates

Note: Periods of U.S. trade balance eterioration are in blue; periods of adjustment are in yellow.
*Foreign aggregates are constructed as GDP-weighted averages of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Data for Figure 8

Dates	Panel 1, Line 1: 4-Quarter Percent Change in Foreign CPI	Panel 2, Line 1: Ratio of Foreign Nontraded Prices to Traded Prices	Panel 3, Line 1: Nominal Foreign 10-Year Yield	Panel 3, Line 2: Real Foreign 10-Year Yield
1970q1	5	0.71	7.73876	2.755592
1970q2	4.97	0.71	7.949867	2.944947
1970q3	4.89	0.72	8.020279	3.060681
1970q4	5.52	0.73	7.995079	2.489386
1971q1	5.58	0.73	7.690691	2.12674
1971q2	5.97	0.74	7.690146	1.730785
1971q3	6.47	0.74	7.732629	1.248093
1971q4	6.29	0.75	7.512638	1.201943
1972q1	5.7	0.75	7.396767	1.69963
1972q2	5.63	0.75	7.494145	1.877975
1972q3	5.97	0.76	7.568553	1.624327
1972q4	6.45	0.76	7.644919	1.217982
1973q1	7.34	0.77	7.780191	0.4479644
1973q2	8.68	0.77	8.093656	-0.5107534
1973q3	9.43	0.77	8.555556	-0.7523171
1973q4	10.86	0.78	8.760007	-1.927014
1974q1	13.72	0.78	9.2845	-4.226487
1974q2	14.46	0.78	9.865928	-4.389237
1974q3	15.49	0.79	10.36389	-4.906969
1974q4	15.93	0.79	10.40578	-5.383598
1975q1	13.93	0.79	9.778824	-4.036075
1975q2	13.38	0.79	9.574986	-3.700551
1975q3	12.12	0.79	9.573956	-2.509812
1975q4	10.85	0.79	9.643465	-1.114488
1976q1	10.41	0.8	9.504085	-0.7994934
1976q2	10.19	0.8	9.723331	-0.2588272
1976q3	9.89	0.8	9.953151	0.192588
1976q4	10.32	0.81	10.05135	-0.1526433
1977q1	10.46	0.81	9.769502	-0.6381957
1977q2	10.21	0.81	9.46537	-0.692682
1977q3	10.09	0.82	9.175202	-0.77388
1977q4	8.89	0.82	8.890542	0.1572131
1978q1	7.79	0.83	8.802247	1.158144
1978q2	7.06	0.84	8.788848	1.820192
1978q3	6.81	0.84	8.814441	2.127333
1978q4	6.51	0.84	8.926029	2.511817
1979q1	6.77	0.85	9.242073	2.539701
1979q2	7.12	0.85	9.755338	2.619783
1979q3	8.3	0.86	10.12025	1.798232
1979q4	9.52	0.86	10.80798	1.301689
1980q1	11.02	0.86	11.61713	0.6150787
1980q2	11.88	0.86	11.57218	-0.2104107
1980q3	11.36	0.87	11.35852	0.1608619
1980q4	11.07	0.87	11.69172	0.8546984
1981q1	10.44	0.87	11.92007	1.64906
1981q2	9.81	0.87	12.66243	3.004219
1981q3	9.75	0.88	13.4314	3.820189
1981q4	9.88	0.88	13.25682	3.523254
1982q1	9.26	0.88	12.87959	3.729836
1982q2	8.81	0.88	12.7321	4.075187
1982q3	8.34	0.88	12.55173	4.357119
1982q4	7.59	0.88	11.78673	4.347853
1983q1	6.95	0.88	11.25452	4.528243
1983q2	6.34	0.88	11.12943	4.990685
1983q3	5.94	0.88	11.27527	5.533018
1983q4	5.78	0.88	11.01368	5.423584
1984q1	5.56	0.88	10.81008	5.421493
1984q2	5.49	0.88	10.97995	5.639419
1984q3	5.02	0.88	10.87882	5.98694
1984q4	4.78	0.89	10.14476	5.494444
1985q1	5.19	0.89	9.998199	4.934398
1985q2	5.21	0.9	9.858467	4.752317
1985q3	4.96	0.9	9.568181	4.715762
1985q4	4.47	0.91	9.313462	5.037957
1986q1	3.62	0.91	8.608179	5.214546
1986q2	2.55	0.91	7.775514	5.449483
1986q3	2.22	0.92	7.63053	5.640415
1986q4	1.95	0.92	8.004284	6.209049
1987q1	1.95	0.93	7.638165	5.778538
1987q2	2.44	0.94	7.438366	5.099772
1987q3	2.63	0.94	8.479093	5.923159
1987q4	2.7	0.95	8.284731	5.689205
1988q1	2.57	0.95	7.612773	5.135436
1988q2	2.48	0.96	7.690592	5.287581
1988q3	2.82	0.96	8.10817	5.36078
1988q4	3.19	0.97	7.804838	4.692975
1989q1	3.53	0.97	8.138458	4.676478
1989q2	4.39	0.98	8.41966	4.072519
1989q3	4.35	0.98	8.320518	4.012633
1989q4	4.37	0.99	8.788985	4.477965
1990q1	4.76	1	9.764892	5.100941
1990q2	4.41	1.01	9.904104	5.588315
1990q3	4.6	1.01	10.1287	5.620734
1990q4	5.05	1.02	9.925161	5.041499
1991q1	4.99	1.03	9.499109	4.410283
1991q2	4.61	1.04	9.093921	4.672382
1991q3	4.51	1.04	8.98644	4.633362
1991q4	4.17	1.05	8.5826	4.566398
1992q1	3.71	1.06	8.304687	4.69171
1992q2	3.8	1.06	8.400442	4.676078
1992q3	3.25	1.07	8.541074	5.259842
1992q4	2.6	1.07	8.034192	5.473968
1993q1	2.8	1.08	7.377564	4.647557
1993q2	2.57	1.08	7.162457	4.675898
1993q3	2.92	1.08	6.324972	3.491292
1993q4	2.57	1.09	5.773095	3.25395
1994q1	2.23	1.1	5.890277	3.69437
1994q2	1.97	1.1	6.613284	4.654483
1994q3	1.63	1.1	7.307668	5.673976
1994q4	1.98	1.1	7.51397	5.51741
1995q1	1.86	1.1	7.44208	5.586419
1995q2	1.9	1.11	6.644269	4.801658
1995q3	1.8	1.11	6.473516	4.651674
1995q4	1.58	1.11	6.274446	4.605625
1996q1	1.52	1.11	6.170804	4.560028
1996q2	1.57	1.11	6.242313	4.638047
1996q3	1.47	1.12	6.044948	4.5476
1996q4	1.51	1.12	5.454038	3.922471
1997q1	1.54	1.13	5.273675	3.713117
1997q2	1.74	1.14	5.249679	3.514132
1997q3	2	1.14	4.895669	2.897469
1997q4	1.99	1.14	4.684033	2.711251
1998q1	1.71	1.14	4.346337	2.653743
1998q2	1.41	1.15	4.215145	2.786243
1998q3	1.02	1.15	3.920567	2.88272
1998q4	1.05	1.15	3.439659	2.417682
1999q1	0.76	1.16	3.528331	2.795094
1999q2	0.73	1.16	3.612493	2.895086
1999q3	0.87	1.17	4.158433	3.291454
1999q4	0.8	1.17	4.283191	3.527039
2000q1	1.21	1.18	4.433112	3.249626
2000q2	1.23	1.19	4.238169	3.03074
2000q3	1.49	1.19	4.245256	2.775533
2000q4	1.53	1.19	4.099028	2.596675
2001q1	1.56	1.2	3.86278	2.250829
2001q2	1.8	1.2	4.014421	2.182829
2001q3	1.39	1.21	3.991306	2.557907
2001q4	1.08	1.21	3.824049	2.730824
2002q1	1.12	1.21	4.132648	2.95984
2002q2	1.08	1.22	4.214325	3.111433
2002q3	1.22	1.23	3.822452	2.59347
2002q4	1.64	1.23	3.667916	2.010352
2003q1	1.87	1.24	3.368695	1.477931
2003q2	1.51	1.25	3.232136	1.705392
2003q3	1.5	1.26	3.562638	2.049251
2003q4	1.4	1.27	3.737801	2.337794
2004q1	1.15	1.27	3.577061	2.4192
2004q2	1.55	1.28	3.816437	2.254754
2004q3	1.63	1.28	3.727028	2.081048
2004q4	1.87	1.29	3.446442	1.571007
2005q1	NA	NA	3.311774	1.715115
2005q2	NA	NA	3.083595	1.516571
2005q3	NA	NA	3.02122	1.283869
2005q4	NA	NA	3.180241	1.583434

Footnotes

**  Corresponding author: Steven Kamin, Telephone 202-452-3339, Fax 202-872-4926. Email addresses: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. We thank Hilary Croke and Nathan Montgomery for valuable research assistance. The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or of any other person associated with the Federal Reserve System. Return to text

1.  This approach, which allows us to analyze developments in a single country, contrasts with that used in the studies discussed above, which focus on especially pronounced episodes of external adjustment in many countries. By concentrating on the largest and most sustained adjustments, the approach taken by previous studies assesses periods when external adjustment has the greatest chance of affecting aggregate macroeconomic outcomes. However, that approach entails comparing economic performance during pronounced adjustment periods with performance during other years; those other years may represent an inadequate control sample, as they include both periods of deterioration and periods of adjustment not pronounced enough to qualify as adjustment episodes. As the approach taken in this paper explicitly distinguishes between deterioration and adjustment periods, it is less subject to this problem. Return to text

2.  Of course, given that our episodes are defined by widening and narrowing of the nominal trade balance, an upward swing in the contribution of real net exports--from negative during periods of deterioration to positive during periods of adjustment--follows closely from our definitions (apart from the nominal to real translation). Return to text

3.  As was noted, this is consistent with the conclusions reached by Croke, Kamin, and Leduc, 2006, Freund and Warnock, 2006, and Debelle and Galati, 2005, based on their multi-country analyses. Return to text

4.  See Gramlich (2004) for a straightforward derivation and discussion of this result. Return to text

5.  The trade balance was comparatively little changed from 1970:Q1 through 1975:Q2 and from 1992:Q2 through 1997:Q1; as such, we see these neither as periods of significant deterioration nor as periods of adjustment. Return to text

6.  To test the statistical significance of the difference in performance between deterioration and adjustment periods, we estimate an equivalent specification ($$y=\alpha+Y_{1}\ast D^{\text{adjustment}}+Y_{2}\ast D^{\text{other} }+\varepsilon$$) and then evaluate the t-statistic on $$Y_{1}$$. (Note that $$Y_{1}=\beta_{2}-\beta_{1}$$) Return to text

7.  A negative relationship between house prices and the current account balance has been noted by a number of observers. (See, for example, Ahearne et. al., 2005.) Higher house prices may stimulate residential investment and may encourage consumption as well. Return to text

8.  These data are published on an annual frequency; we used a cubic spline technique to transform these series to a quarterly frequency. Return to text

9.  In particular, traded services include information services; finance and insurance; professional, scientific, and technical services; and management of enterprises. Non-traded services include transportation and warehousing; real estate and rental and leasing; administrative and waste management services; education, health care, and social assistance; arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services; and other services, except government. Return to text

10.  We have also estimated models (not shown in the table) that take the change in inflation as the dependent variable. We find that core PCE prices, goods GDP prices, and services GDP prices all accelerate at a pace of about 0.2 percentage points a year in periods of adjustment relative to periods of deterioration. The exceptions are CPI and structures inflation, which tend to slow a touch during adjustment periods. Return to text

11.  Core goods imports exclude computers, semiconductors, and oil. Core goods exports exclude computers and semiconductors. Return to text

12.  Of course, the prices of oil and other commodities are themselves quite responsive to moves in the dollar. Return to text

13.  As discussed further below, average foreign inflation appears to be higher during periods of U.S. adjustment, but the difference is not large enough to account for the rise in trade prices. Return to text

14.  We calculate the long-term real interest rate as the ten-year Treasury yield minus the four-quarter change in the CPI and the real Federal Funds rate as the nominal rate minus the annualized quarterly change in the CPI. Return to text

15.  See Hooper and Marquez (1995), Senhadji and Montenegro (1999), and Marquez (2002), who estimate this elasticity using aggregate data. Return to text

16.  The countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Return to text

17.  For robustness, we identified an alternative set of deterioration and adjustment periods based on a more stringent criterion that the change in the trade balance/GDP ratio must be at least 2 percentage points. This led to fewer but more pronounced episodes. However, it did not much change the results for the behavior of macroeconomic variables during deterioration and adjustment periods. Return to text

18.  We did not use the algorithm described earlier in Section IV to re-identify the dates of deterioration and adjustment periods for the United States. The algorithm would identify periods for the United States that generally line up with our judgmentally chosen dates, but with some small deviations. Return to text

19.  We restrict our analysis to the OECD countries as data are available for them on a consistent and sectorally dis-aggregated basis. Clearly, this sample excludes a significant and growing share of the global economy. Return to text

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