Skip to main content
SWStudyWalks Search

Principles of Macroeconomics / Unit 3   MAC 0206 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Net Exports

Captions available

The idea

Net exports are exports minus imports, also called the trade balance. Exports exceeding imports is a surplus; imports exceeding exports is a deficit.

In practice

The United States has run deficits in most years since the early nineteen eighties.

Where people slip

A deficit subtracts from GDP by construction, which is not the same as saying it makes a country poorer.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it  ·  Sources for Principles of Macroeconomics