A degree in part turning up as a deficit (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
trade gap
'a deficit' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a degree in part turning up' is the wordplay.
'degree' becomes 'ged' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'turning up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'a'+'ged'='aged'
'aged' placed into 'part' is 'pagedart'.
'pagedart' in reverse letter order is 'TRADE GAP'.
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trade gap that I've seen before include "negative balance" , "Excess of imports over exports" , "Imports minus exports" , "Import-export concern" , "bit of business information" .)