The U.S. Department of Commerce today said the nation’s trade deficit grew 2.7 percent in August, to $69.9 billion, exceeding the record set in July.
Major contributors to the gap between imports and exports of goods and services were the bills for foreign oil and for imports from China, the report said.
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U.S. exports eclipsed previous records, rising 2.3 percent, to $122.4 billion, led by sales of commercial aircraft, drilling gear and computers.
But that wasn’t sufficient to counter imports, which rose 2.4 percent in August to a record $192.3 billion. Oil imports alone rose $1.1 billion – 3.8 percent – to a record $29.7 billion, as the price of imported crude hit a record $66.12 per barrel.
The trade gap with China shot up a staggering 12.2 percent, to a record $22 billion. Through August, the nation’s deficit with China was running 13.5 percent above last year; the 2005 gap totaled $202 billion, the highest ever with any single country.
The U.S. deficit with Mexico soared 22.2 percent, to a record $6.2 billion, and the deficit with Canada rose 2.5 percent, to $6.1 billion.
But the U.S. trade gap with the European Union plunged 17.5 percent, to $11 billion, and that deficit with Japan fell 1.3 percent, to $7.5 billion.
Through August, the nation was running into the red at an annualized rate of $784 billion, the report said, putting the U.S. on track to top last year’s $716.7 billion total and set a fifth straight annual record.
