WASHINGTON • The U.S. current-account deficit, a measure of the nation’s trade and financial flows with other countries, narrowed to a seasonally adjusted $128.19 billion in the second quarter from a revised $136.19 billion in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a $128.0 billion deficit.

The current account tracks movements of goods and services across borders as well as income from investments and other payments, from foreign aid to private transfers.

In essence, the current-account deficit measures how much Americans need to borrow from abroad to fund their consumption and investment.

The deficit was 2.4% of current-dollar gross domestic product in the April through June period, compared with 2.6% in the first quarter.

Here are the report’s key takeaways:

• The narrowing of the current-account deficit mostly reflected an expanded surplus on primary income, the department said.

• The flow of foreign profits brought back by U.S. companies slowed in the first quarter. Dividends and withdrawals, a subset of investment-income payments, is a gauge of companies’ repatriation for foreign profits. That figure was $88.30 billion in the second quarter.

• The sweeping tax law passed by Congress in late 2017 intended to create an incentive to bring those profits back to the U.S. Before 2018, the U.S. generally taxed foreign profits only as companies transferred them to a U.S. parent. Profits reinvested overseas, or simply held as cash or securities by foreign subsidiaries, could avoid the levy. The tax overhaul ended that practice, instead imposing a one-time tax on accumulated foreign profits.

• The U.S. has run a persistent current-account deficit during the two decades for which comparable records have been kept. That’s because the country imports more than it exports, as Americans consume more than they produce relative to the rest of the world’s economies.

• The U.S. has maintained a surplus in primary income. That means U.S. firms and residents receive more investment income and wages from abroad then they send overseas.

• The U.S. has consistently run a deficit on secondary income. That includes both government payments and private transfers, such as a worker sending money to family abroad.

The deficit was 2.4% of current-dollar gross domestic product in the April through June period, compared with 2.6% in the first quarter.

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