Talking up exports
U.S. exports will grow next year even as a sovereign-debt crisis pushes Europe into recession, Bloomberg said. The euro area’s share of overseas sales for American-made goods has dwindled to 13 percent after peaking at 19 percent in the early 1990s, said Joseph Carson of AllianceBernstein LP. A trade shock that cuts all eurozone imports by 10 percent in the next 12 months would trim U.S. economic output by only 0.2 percent, UBS AG estimates. Total U.S. exports — responsible for almost half of growth since the 18-month recession ended in June 2009 — reached a record $180.4 billion in September, even as Europe’s woes were escalating. America’s push into faster-growing emerging markets such as China is helping sustain demand for a diverse range of goods, from Caterpillar Inc. machinery to Apple Inc. iPhones, Bloomberg said. Sales of U.S. goods abroad have jumped 29 percent in the nine quarters of the recovery, the fastest growth at the start of any economic rebound in the past five decades, analysts said.