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WASHINGTON: The US trade deficit widened sharply in December to 40.2 billion dollars, capping a year that saw a massive drop in the trade gap, government data showed on Wednesday.
The Commerce Department reported total US exports of goods and services of 142.7 billion dollars and total imports of 182.9 billion dollars in the last month of 2009.
The US deficit in international trade of goods and services mushroomed to 40.2 billion dollars, up about 10 percent from a revised 36.39 billion dollars in November. The November reading was originally reported at 36.4 billion dollars.
It was the third consecutive rise in the trade gap and the biggest deficit all year.
The sharp increase in the deficit surprised most analysts, who had projected the gap would slip to 35.8 billion dollars.
For the full year, the US trade imbalance with the rest of the world improved impressively.
The 2009 trade gap fell 45 percent from a year earlier to 380.7 billion dollars, representing 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, a broad measure of the country's goods and services output.
In 2008 the trade gap amounted to 4.8 percent of GDP.
In December, US exports rose 4.6 billion dollars from the prior month, while imports were up 8.4 billion dollars.
The goods deficit led the widening of the trade deficit, rising 3.4 billion from November to 51.8 billion dollars. The services surplus slipped 0.4 billion dollars to 11.7 billion dollars.
Exports of goods rose to 99.1 billion dollars, an increase of 4.6 billion dollars from November. Goods imports climbed a hefty 8.1 billion dollars to 150.9 billion dollars.
Exports of services were "virtually unchanged" at 43.6 billion dollars, and imports of services increased 0.3 billion dollars to 31.9 billion dollars, the department said. - AFP/de
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