The U.S. trade deficit surged to a 17-month high of $6.97 billion in April as exports fell sharply while imports jumped to the second-highest level on record, the government said Thursday.
The Commerce Department said that the gap between what America imports and what it sells abroad jumped by 25 percent from a March deficit of $5.58 billion.The deterioration was blamed on a big rise in oil imports and a sharp decline in exports of commercial aircraft.
Sales of American exports fell 1.9 percent to $36.39 billion, while imports rose by 1.6 percent to $43.36 billion, the highest level since a record $43.88 billion in products were imported in October 1990.
Jim Haughey, vice president for research and economics at Cahners Publishing Co., said that it was likely that the trade deficit would remain stuck at around $7 billion for the next several months.
"We are going to be increasing our imports at a pretty good clip, and with our foreign trading partners weak at the moment, it will be pretty hard to increase our exports," he said.
The unexpectedly sharp deterioration in the country's trade performance represented a blow to Bush administration hopes that continued improvements in trade this year would help spur the U.S. economy.
In slightly better news, the government said that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits edged down slightly to 407,000 during the first week of June.