In August, the trade deficit widened in August to $44.2 billion as trade overall slowed from July amid the weakening global economy, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Exports fell 1% from July to $181.2 billion, while imports were less than 0.1% lower at $225.5 billion.
For the nine months to August, the picture was better: export growth from a year earlier was 5%, outpacing import growth so that the deficit only expanded 1.4% to $374.4 billion for the period.
However, for the crucial trade relationship with China, the major contributor to the overall deficit, the shortfall surged 7.2% to $203.1 billion over the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period last year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
