U.S. trade deficit soars to 10-year high in 2018

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade deficit soared to 621 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the highest in a decade, data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed.

The 68.8-billion-dollar annual increase, or 12.5 percent, came along with a net loss in goods and services trade of 59.8 billion dollars in December.

The December figure, which also hit a 10-year record, was the result of a 2.1 percent rise in imports to 264.9 billion dollars and a 1.9 percent drop in exports to 205.1 billion dollars, according to the department.

For the whole year, imports surged 7.5 percent year-on-year to 3.12 trillion dollars while exports jumped 6.3 percent to 2.5 trillion dollars, the data showed.