WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit with the rest of the world widened 15.1 percent in January as imports surged amid rising oil prices, official data showed Thursday. The trade gap rose to its highest mark since June, at $46.3 billion, from $40.3 billion in December, the Commerce Department said. Imports rose for the fourth consecutive month as the US economic recovery picked up steam. Imports increased 5.2 percent from December at $214.1 billion, lifted by a jump in oil imports. Petroleum imports reached their highest level since October 2008 at $34.9 billion. The average barrel price of imported crude oil leaped to $84.34 dollars from $79.78 in December. Imports solidly outpaced exports, which rose 2.7 percent from the previous month to $167.7 billion. The United States exported a record number of goods for the month of January. The January trade gap was wider than the average estimate of $41.5 billion. Since the 2008 global economic crisis that slashed international trade volumes, the US trade deficit has trended upward, reaching nearly $50 billion in June 2010. While US exports were strong in January, imports played their traditional role of feeding the economy's expansion. Imports of goods in January increased in almost every category, including industrial supplies, autos and consumer goods. The United States, for example, imported $11.6 billion in automobiles and auto parts in January, the highest level since July 2008. But that still was well below the $21.7 billion registered for February of that year. Among consumer goods, imports notably rose in textiles and furniture. The US trade balance was in the red with all major trading partners. The politically sensitive US trade gap with China, which had narrowed sharply in December but nevertheless reached a record mark for all of 2010, grew again. The goods deficit with China rose to $23.3 billion in January from $20.7 billion in the prior month, as US exports plunged 20 percent to the world's second-largest economy and Chinese imports ticked higher. Last year the gap swelled to a record $273.1 billion as China for the second year surpassed Canada as the largest seller of goods to the United States.
