U.S. Trade Deficit Tanks

The Commerce Department said the U.S. trade imbalance dropped to $36 billion in January, a decline of 9.7% from December, the lowest level since October 2002. This was better than the $38 billion deficit that economists had expected, and reflected the fact that crude oil imports dropped to the lowest point in three years as well as demand for a wide variety of other foreign goods, the
Associated Press reports.

America’s deficit with many of its trading partners declined sharply, though China bucked the downward trend, rising by 3.5% to $20.6 billion.