US November foreign trade deficit makes for grim reading, economists say

America's shortfall in trade with the rest of the world widened in November as the climb in world oil prices increased the country's energy bill.

The total US foreign trade deficit increased by $1.6bn to reach $50.5b (consensus: -$49.2bn), according to the Department of Commerce.

Imports of goods and services shot higher by 2.4% on the month to hit $250.7bn, alongside a 2.2% rise in exports to $200.2bn.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, described November's reading on foreign trade as "grim", just like the October print.

Even making allowance for a correction in December, Shepherdson estimated the widening trade gap would subtract 1.2 percentage points from the quarterly and annualised pace of expansion in gross domestic product.

That drag, he said, was twice that incorporated into the latest GDP tracking estimate from the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, which was due to be updated later on Friday.

"The recent surge in imports likely can't be sustained, imports ex-oil and aircraft leaped at a 21% annualised rate over the three months to November," he said.