US Current-Account Deficit Widens to $246B in Q2 2026
The gap jumped 15.7% from Q1, reaching 3.0% of GDP, as the net international investment position hit –$22.42 trillion.
The United States current-account deficit widened sharply in the second quarter of 2026, climbing $33.4 billion to $246.0 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. The increase represented a 15.7 percent deterioration from the revised first-quarter shortfall of $212.6 billion, signaling a meaningful acceleration in the imbalance between what the country earns from abroad and what it pays out.
As a share of the economy, the deficit rose to 3.0 percent of current-dollar gross domestic product, up from 2.7 percent in the prior quarter. That shift underscores how the external imbalance is expanding faster than overall economic output, a dynamic closely watched by policymakers and currency markets alike.
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The broader picture of America's financial standing with the rest of the world also deteriorated. The U.S. net international investment position — the gap between what American residents own overseas and what foreigners hold in the United States — stood at negative $22.42 trillion at the end of the second quarter. Foreign assets held by U.S. residents totaled $46.97 trillion, while U.S. liabilities to foreign holders reached $69.39 trillion. The net position worsened by roughly $1.15 trillion compared with the revised first-quarter reading of negative $21.27 trillion.
The scale of the negative investment position reflects decades of cumulative current-account deficits that have left the United States as the world's largest net debtor nation in absolute terms. Analysts note that persistent trade and income imbalances, if unaddressed, can put downward pressure on the dollar and raise the cost of financing U.S. obligations over time.
Continue reading at U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
