WASHINGTON — The trade deficit in the United States shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years, the Commerce Department said Friday, and the numbers suggested that the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.
The country’s trade gap narrowed to $38.5 billion during the month, the department said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a deficit of $46 billion.
The lower gap means that the government could revise upward its advance reading for fourth-quarter gross domestic product, which showed the economy contracted at a 0.1 percent annual rate in part because of a decline in inflation-adjusted exports. The government had released its estimate for fourth-quarter G.D.P. before the December trade data was available.
Friday’s data showed American exports surged by $8.6 billion during the month, boosted by sales of industrial supplies, including a $1.2 billion increase of non-monetary gold. In a reflection of a boom in oil output driven by hydraulic fracturing technologies, petroleum exports rose by nearly $1 billion during the month to a record high level.
A fall in petroleum imports led overall purchases from abroad to decline $4.6 billion in December.
For all of 2012, the trade gap fell by 3.5 percent to $540.4 billion. A trade deficit of any size is still a drag on the domestic economy, but rising exports help lessen the effect. Exports last year rose 4.4 percent.
While the overall trade deficit shrank, it grew with China during the year. That will be sure to raise concerns from American manufacturers who want the United States to pressure the Asian giant more to strengthen its currency.
But even the figures on China had a silver lining. While imports last year from China increased to a record high, so did America’s exports to the country. America’s December trade deficit with China for goods, which was not seasonally adjusted, narrowed by $4.5 billion on a drop in imports.
The American trade deficit increased with the European Union last year but America’s surplus with Brazil rose.
U.S. Trade Deficit Shrinks
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U.S. Trade Deficit Shrinks
