TRADE BALANCE REPORT

U.S. trade gap narrows in August By Greg Robb Last update: 8:32 a.m. EDT Oct. 10, 2008 Comments: 2 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. trade deficit narrowed by 3.5% in August to $59.1 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. The trade deficit was above the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists of a deficit of $58.5 billion. Both imports and exports declined in August, but imports fell faster than exports in August. However, the 2.0% drop in exports was the biggest since June 2004. Auto imports were the lowest since March 2005. Imports of crude oil dropped for the first time in six months. The U.S. trade deficit with China widened to $25.3 billion in compared with $22.5 billion in the same month last year. This is the highest deficit since last October. Imports from China hit a new record of $31.8 billion.