The US trade deficit widened in February for the sixth straight month, hitting a fresh nine-year record though US exports of goods and services were at an all-time high, official data showed today.
The mounting gap comes as President Donald Trump pursues an increasingly fraught battle with the world's largest economies to right the yawning US trade balance, sparking fears of a trade war.
Soaring US imports of industrial supplies and capital goods pushed the monthly US trade deficit up 1.6% to $57.6 billion, seasonally adjusted, the highest level since October 2008.
The result overshot the expectations of economists, who had expected the trade deficit to hold steady at January's level, previously the highest since October 2008.
The rising trade gap also pointed to weaker growth in the first quarter as deficits subtract from calculations of GDP.
Tit-for-tat exchanges of tariff threats from Washington and Beijing this week have whipsawed global stock markets, prompting the Trump administration to call for calm and point to negotiations as a likely outcome.
February's figures showed the US bilateral deficit in goods trade with China - America's largest and the focus of much of Trump's ire - fell nearly 19% in February to $29.3 billion.
February exports of US goods and services rose 1.7% to their highest on record at $204.4 billion.
But so did imports, which likewise gained 1.7% to reach $262 billion - also an all-time record.
