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U.S. trade gap narrows in August on lower oil prices

WASHINGTON - Falling oil prices helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in August, while both exports and imports retreated from records set in July, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday.

Published: Fri 10 Oct 2008, 7:43 PM

Updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 2:16 PM

  • By
  • (Reuters)

The trade gap shrank 3.5 percent to $59.1 billion from a downwardly revised estimate of $61.3 billion in July. Analysts surveyed before the report had forecast the August trade gap to shrink to $58.8 billion.

Exports fell 2 percent in August, the biggest one-month drop in more than four years, but were still the second-highest on record at $164.7 billion. Exports of capital goods and petroleum set records in August.

Imports fell 2.4 percent to $223.9 billion, also the second-highest on record. Imports of consumer goods and food, feeds and beverages set category records.

The United States' monthly oil import bill fell to $37.0 billion in August after rising in each of the five previous months. The average price for imported oil dropped to $119.99 per barrel from the record set in August of $124.66.

Imports of foreign car and car parts were the lowest since March 2005 in a sign of weak demand for big-ticket goods.


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