WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (AFP) - US exports sank 2.3 percent in November, driving the US trade deficit to an all-time high of 60.3 billion dollars, which US Treasury Secretary John Snow said was the result of strong US economic growth outpacing that of other countries.
"The trade gap reflects two things: that our economy is growing at a fast pace and we are growing faster than our trading partners," Snow told reporters.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President George W. Bush sees the record trade deficit as evidence the United States is the global driver of economic growth.
"Our economy is the economic engine for world growth," McClellan told reporters at the White House, adding that "because of that prosperity, Americans are shopping in the global marketplace, buying more goods and services than other countries which are not growing as fast."
The United States posted a record trade deficit in November, the government said.
The Commerce Department estimated that US exports sank 2.3 percent in November, driving the US trade deficit to a record 60.3 billion dollars.
While exports fell to a five-month low of 95.6 billion dollars, imports rose 1.3 percent to a record 155.8 billion as the bill for imported oil rose by 17.7 percent, or more than two billion dollars, to a record 14.2 billion.
The figures are adjusted for seasonal factors, but not price changes.
The trade gap increased 7.7 percent from October`s revised 56 billion dollars and 50.8 percent from November 2003`s 40 billion.
Wall Street economists had expected the trade deficit on goods and services to shrink to about 53.3 billion dollars, according to a survey conducted by CBS MarketWatch.
The gap widened despite a weakening dollar, which should make US goods and services cheaper both at home and abroad.
Wednesday`s report is likely to put more pressure on the greenback and renew calls for Washington to do something about energy independence and the trade imbalance with China.
Economic analyst Joel Naroff described the trade gap as "the Grand Canyon of trade deficits, and there is no saying it will not widen further."
"Basically, we bought more of just about everything," Naroff said, adding: "On the export side, we sold less of just about anything."
The decline in November exports was led by a 1.4-billion-dollar drop in capital goods, including 325 million dollars in aircraft and aircraft engines. Exports of industrial materials, mainly energy, fell by 800 million dollars. Exports of autos, consumer goods and food also declined.
After ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, Snow said that "the G7 agenda will be world growth.
"I think we`ll need more than one growth engine in the world. We need Europe to be an engine of growth. We need Japan to be an engine of growth," he stressed.
But Moody`s Investors Service economist John Lonski said it was "incorrect to blame the deterioration of the US trade position solely on the faster growth of the United States relative to the rest of the world."
"Unfortunately, what we have here is a loss of competitiveness for a number of items made in the USA where not even the deep slide of the dollar exchange rate has been capable of remedying or compensating for this loss of competitiveness," Lonski said.
01/12/2005 18:58 GMT - AFP