to gdp growth in the fourth quarter it had subtracted from growth for five straight quartersthe goods trade deficit rose 32 to 1014 billion in december marking a record high december imports of goods surged 20 to an alltime high of 2597 billion there were record highs set for imports of capital and consumer goodssome of the rise in imports likely reflected goods being offloaded after being delayed for months aboard ships at us ports because of worker shortages port backlogs remain high which suggests goods imports could set another record high in january prior to the pandemic imports tended to peak ahead of the holiday shopping season tapering off by the first quarterbut growth of imports will slow over the rest of 2022 said bill adams chief economist at comerica bankbusinesses are making progress rebuilding inventories and real consumer spending on durable goods is forecast to fall in 2022 that will mean less demand for imported consumer products as the year goes ongoods exports rose 13 to 1583 billion in december in addition to the strong growth in services exports shipments of consumer goods were the highest on recordthe world economy is coming around as omicron starts to burn itself out and restrictions are eased said joel naroff chief economist at naroff economics in holland pennsylvania that is the good news the bad news is that the us continues to ship its recovery out to the rest of the world