U.S. trade gap widens

The U.S trade gap grew by 5.7% in February to $62.3 billion, trumping economists’ expectations for a slight deficit decline, the Department of Commerce reported today. Wall Street economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a deficit of $57.5 billion. February imports rose 3.1% to $213.7 billion, a $6.3 billion rise from $207.3 billion in January. Exports jumped 2% to $151.4 billion, a $3 billion increase from the $148.4 billion reported in January. February’s goods deficit increased $3.5 billion from January to $72.9 billion. Services surplus was virtually unchanged at $10.6 billion. The trade deficit with China decreased slightly to $18.4 billion in February, compared with $20.3 billion in the year-ago period.