US trade gap expands in August as trade slows overall

The US trade deficit widened in August to $44.2 billion as trade overall slowed from July amid the weakening global economy, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Exports fell 1.0 percent from July to $181.2 billion, while imports were less than 0.1 percent lower at $225.5 billion. For the nine months to August, the picture was better: export growth from a year earlier was 5.0 percent, outpacing import growth so that the deficit only expanded 1.4 percent to $374.4 billion for the period. However, for the crucial trade relationship with China, the major contributor to the US overall deficit, the shortfall surged 7.2 percent to $203.1 billion over the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period last year.