WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Overall U.S. trade deficit widened in November to 68.1 billion U.S. dollars as imports rose at a faster pace than exports, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday.
U.S. exports rose by 1.2 percent to 184.2 billion dollars in November while imports increased by 2.9 percent to 252.3 billion dollars, the department said.
Overall trade deficit in November rose by 8 percent from a revised 63.1 billion dollars in October. In the first 11 months of 2020, the trade deficit rose 13.9 percent from the same period in 2019, according to the department.
"The larger-than-expected 8% widening in the U.S. trade balance is due to an outsized gain in imports," Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery, economists at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote Thursday in a note.
"Consumer goods imports surged for the second consecutive month likely reflecting strong holiday sales and low retail inventories. Capital goods imports rose for the sixth month, signaling continued strength in manufacturing," they noted, adding net trade is expected to be a drag on U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2020.
"In the context of fourth quarter GDP (gross domestic product), net trade is set to be a sizeable drag on growth and today's report suggests some downside to our current estimate of a -0.7 percentage point drag," they wrote.
The trade data came as U.S. economic recovery is losing momentum due to a surge of new COVID-19 cases across the country in recent weeks.
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