Oil-Price Spike Lifts January Trade Deficit to $46.3 Billion

WASHINGTON — The U.S. international trade deficit jumped to a seasonally adjusted $46.3 billion in January, the biggest trade imbalance since June, as petroleum imports were the largest in more than two years, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

January’s total imports of goods and services jumped by $10.5 billion, or 5.2%. Imports of industrial supplies and petroleum were the highest since October 2008, while capital goods and food imports were the highest on record.

Oil imports increased as the price per barrel of crude jumped in January to $84.34, the highest since October 2008. The price of crude oil has increased four months in a row and rose by $4.56 from December, the largest month-over-month increase in more than a year.

In 2010, a barrel of oil averaged $74.66.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a $41.5 billion trade deficit, according to the median estimate.

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