The US current-account deficit widens to $246bn, 3.0% of GDP
Victoria Shinder2 min readThe US current-account deficit widened by $33.4 billion, or 15.7%, to $246.0 billion in the second quarter of 2026, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on 24 September. That is 3.0% of GDP, up from 2.7% in the first quarter, whose deficit was revised to $212.6 billion. The widening came from a larger deficit on goods, partly offset by smaller deficits on primary income - earnings on investment - and on secondary income, which covers transfers.
Both sides of the account grew. Exports of goods and services plus income received from abroad rose $58.8 billion to $1.44 trillion; imports plus income paid rose $92.2 billion to $1.69 trillion. In the financial account, net transactions were minus $369.7 billion, meaning net borrowing from the rest of the world: US residents added $663.3 billion of foreign assets while their liabilities to foreign residents rose $978.9 billion.
The stock picture moved further. The US net international investment position - what US residents own abroad minus what foreigners own in the US - stood at minus $22.42 trillion at the end of June, against a revised minus $21.27 trillion three months earlier. Assets reached $46.97 trillion and liabilities $69.39 trillion. The BEA attributes most of the change to prices rather than transactions: US assets rose $3.72 trillion, of which $3.03 trillion was price changes, and liabilities rose $4.87 trillion, of which $3.95 trillion was price changes, led by portfolio investment. The next release is due on 18 December.
What it means
For the dollar, the flow and the stock tell different stories. The flow says the United States needed about $370 billion of net foreign financing in a single quarter, and foreign investors supplied it - liabilities grew faster than assets by roughly $316 billion in transactions alone. That is the funding side of the current-account deficit, and it is the number to watch when foreign demand for US assets is in question.
The stock says something else: the $1.15 trillion deterioration in the net position was driven overwhelmingly by valuation. When US asset prices rise, foreigners' holdings of US equities and bonds gain in value and the net position worsens, even if nobody buys or sells anything. The position is therefore as much a record of relative market performance and exchange rates as of borrowing, and it should not be read as a quarter of new debt.