Comment / On the wires: US trade & container hangover – but lucky 13 for CPI?

On Monday, Flexport’s chief economist Phil Levy duly highlighted that US imports fell from June to July, while exports rose: “For imports, this continues a pullback that dates to March 2022. Looking back to the onset of the pandemic or even the year before, though, imports have shown substantial growth.”

A snapshot of US real imports by major product categories, seasonally adjusted, is shown below (click to expand the table).

(And yes, in case you wonder: it’s all about economic data today – the US CPI report ...