The U.S. current-account deficit narrowed -$22.8 billion QoQ (-9.2%) to -$226.4 billion in Q3 2025 (2.9% of GDP), reflecting improvement across primary income, services, and goods balances.

• The Q3 deficit equaled 2.9% of current-dollar GDP, down from 3.3% in Q2, indicating a smaller external imbalance relative to the size of the economy.
• The Q2 2025 current-account deficit was revised to -$249.2 billion (from a preliminary $251.3 billion), with the revision driven mainly by a slightly larger services surplus ($80.6 billion vs $79.6 billion prelim) and a smaller primary income deficit ($5.8 billion vs -$7.7 billion prelim).
• Total current-account receipts (exports of goods and services plus income received) rose +$24.1 billion QoQ to $1.30 trillion, while total payments (imports plus income paid) increased only +$1.3 billion to $1.53 trillion, supporting the QoQ narrowing in the deficit.
• Goods trade improved modestly as goods exports fell -$1.9 billion to $548.0 billion while goods imports fell -$5.0 billion to $815.4 billion, reflecting lower exports of nonmonetary gold and lower imports of consumer goods (partly offset by higher nonmonetary gold imports).
• Services trade strengthened as services exports rose +$11.7 billion to $314.2 billion and services imports rose +$3.1 billion to $225.0 billion, with “other business services” (professional and management consulting) leading both increases.
• Primary income shifted from deficit to surplus as receipts increased +$16.3 billion to $395.2 billion (led by direct investment income) while payments increased +$5.3 billion to $390.0 billion (driven by other investment income, mainly interest), producing a key improvement versus Q2.
• Secondary income deficits were little changed in direction but eased slightly as receipts fell -$2.0 billion to $44.4 billion and payments fell -$2.1 billion to $97.9 billion, reflecting lower private transfers and reduced general government transfers.
• In the financial account, net financial-account transactions were -$409.9 billion in Q3 (net U.S. borrowing), as U.S. residents’ foreign assets increased +$403.4 billion while U.S. liabilities to foreign residents increased +$797.2 billion;, financial derivatives net transactions were -$16.1 billion, also indicating net borrowing.