MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US trade deficit in November widens to highest in 14 months

The United States trade deficit widened a sharp 9.3% in November to a larger-than-expected 63.1 billion US dollars, the highest in 14 months, mainly on soaring crude oil costs, reported the US Department of Commerce.

Most economists had predicted a deficit in the range of 59.5 billion US dollars but the 63.1 billion is the highest since September 2006. Imports rose faster, 3%, to 205.4 billion US dollars, than exports 0.4% to 142.3 billion. In spite of the US dollar strongly debilitating the widening of the deficit threatens to derail Washington's bid to tame the trade gap. For the first 11 months of 2007 the deficit was gauged at 650 billion dollars, compared with 698 billion dollars during the same period of 2006. Hopes that the deficit would narrow have been stymied by spiking oil prices and the price America, the world's biggest energy importer, has to pay to import oil. The price of imported oil struck a record 79.65 dollars a barrel in November lifting the US petroleum deficit to 30 billion dollars US dollars and its highest level on record, the government survey showed. Oil prices have increased amid geopolitical turmoil, tight supplies and increased demand from rising economic powers like China and India. October's US overall deficit was 57.8 billion dollars, and had also widened from the prior month amid spiking oil prices. China's continued to account for a significant percentage of the US deficit despite a narrowing of the US trade gap with China by 7.6% to 24 billion dollars. The US deficit with the European Union narrowed 12.6% to 10.4 billion dollars, partly as a strong Euro dented demand for EU-made goods, while the trade shortfall with Canada narrowed 12.1% to 4.7 billion dollars, according to the report.