Bangkok Post photo of a ship in L.A.
The US trade deficit widened sharply in June to the highest level in 20 months on the back of rising imports, the government said Wednesday.
The 49.9-billion-dollar trade gap was larger than the 42.0 billion dollars posted in May, the Commerce Department said.
Imports increased three percent to 200.3 billion dollars in June while exports declined 1.3 percent to 150.5 billion dollars, it said.
This is the largest trade gap since October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, which plunged the world’s largest economy into a brutal recession.