Washington, DC, March 9, 2006--The trade deficit continued to expand in January after setting a new annual record in 2005, a government report showed Thursday.
The nation's trade gap widened 5.3% to a new monthly record of $68.5 billion, the Commerce Department said. The previous record was $67.84 billion in October.
Both exports and imports hit new records in January, although imports outpaced goods shipped overseas.
Analysts had expected the deficit to be $66.4 billion.
The Commerce Department lowered its estimate of the December trade deficit slightly to $65.1 billion from the initial estimate of $65.7 billion.
The deficit for 2005 was revised down to a record of $723.6 billion from the previous estimate of $725.8 billion.
In December, imports rose faster than exports. Imports increased 3.5% to $182.9 billion. December exports rose 2.5% to $114.4 billion.
Imports of goods alone rose 3.9% to a record $155.1 billion, with large increases coming in industrial supplies including oil, capital goods, auto and auto parts and consumer goods.
Exports of goods alone rose 3.3% to $81.7 billion. The United States exported a record amount of industrial supplies, capital goods and autos.
The petroleum deficit widened 3.3% to $22.6 billion in January. The value of U.S. oil imports rose to $15.72 billion in January from $15.50 billion in December. The price of a barrel of oil rose to $51.93 from $49.76. The quantity of crude imports fell to 302.8 million from 311.5 million in the previous month.
