WASHINGTON -- The U.S. trade deficit widened for the first time in five months in November, as rising oil prices lifted imports and exports to the euro area slumped.
The U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services jumped 10.4%, the biggest gain since May, to $47.75 billion, the Commerce Department said Friday. The October trade gap was revised down modestly to $43.27 billion from an initial estimate of $43.47 billion.
The trade gap was much higher than forecast. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected the deficit to rebound to $45.2 billion.
With the euro area debt markets under siege and predictions of a double-dip recession, trade flows to the region have taken a hit. U.S. exports to countries using the euro were off 6.9% in November, pushing up the deficit with the euro area by 20.8% to $8.36 billion.
Tensions in the Middle East have also fueled the U.S. trade gap. Easing of global oil prices since the summer had helped to bring down the trade shortfall, but the recent confrontation with major producer Iran over its nuclear program has triggered a spike in oil futures back above $100 a barrel early in the new year.
Oil prices resumed their ascent in November, with the average price of imported crude climbing $3.66 to $102.50 a barrel. That drove up the tab for crude imports to $27.29 billion from $26.01 billion in October. Crude import volumes rose by roughly 3 million barrels to 266.2 million.
The U.S. paid $34.83 billion for all types of energy-related imports in November, up from $32.60 billion the previous month.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit with China narrowed 4.3% to $26.87 billion. Exports to the U.S.'s No. 2 trading partner rose 2.1% to $9.94 billion, the highest level in nearly a year, while imports decreased 2.6% to $36.81 billion after hitting a record high the previous month.
Still, the gap with China is expected to remain a key topic of debate during the election year, with Republican front-runner Mitt Romney pledging to take a tougher stance against Beijing if he is elected president. President Barack Obama is also under pressure from his own party, as Democratic lawmakers push for House passage of a bill that would penalize China for keeping its currency undervalued to support exports.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed the need for a further appreciation of the yuan during a trip to Beijing earlier this week, while the White House is setting up a task force to step up pressure on China over trade frictions, The Wall Street Journal has cited administration officials as saying.
Trade flows had been supporting the U.S. economic recovery during the much of last year, with exports mostly outpacing imports. A decline in the trade gap in the third quarter contributed 0.4 percentage point to gross domestic product, when the economy expanded at a 1.8% clip.
But Friday's report showed that the real, or inflation-adjusted deficit, which economists use to measure the impact of trade on GDP, rose to $47.49 billion in November from $44.05 billion the month before.
U.S. exports fell for a second straight month, down 0.9% at $177.84 billion, not adjusting for inflation. Imports were 1.3% higher at $225.59 billion.
Breaking down imports outside of petroleum products, purchases of capital goods increased $126 million in November to a record $43.83 billion.
Among exports, sales abroad of consumer goods rose $804 million to a new high of $15.68 billion.
The deficit with other major trading partners expanded, as well. The trade shortfall with Canada jumped by more than a third to $2.98 billion, the gap with Mexico increased 4.8% to $5.51 billion, while the deficit with Japan edged up 0.1% to $6.21 billion.
