NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world expanded in January to its highest monthly level on record, as strong domestic demand and higher energy prices offset the effects of a weaker dollar, the government reported Wednesday.
The deficit grew to $43.1 billion from an upwardly revised $42.7 billion in December, the Commerce Department reported. Economists, on average, expected the trade gap to shrink to $42 billion, according to Briefing.com. The previous monthly record for the trade gap was $42.9 billion in March 2003.
The report had little impact on U.S. stock market futures, which continued to trade slightly higher, pointing to a positive opening on Wall Street. Treasury bond prices fell.
In its report, the Commerce Department said exports slipped a bit to $89 billion from $90.1 billion in December, while imports fell to $132.1 billion from $132.8 billion in December.
The value of the dollar has fallen in recent years, which has helped U.S. exporters by making their goods cheaper overseas.
But the dollar has changed little against the currency of China, the biggest U.S. trading partner, since that nation pegs its currency to the greenback.
The U.S. trade gap with China expanded in January to $11.5 billion in January from $9.9 billion in December. In all of 2003, the trade gap with China was a record $124 billion.
But China has lately developed a trade gap of its own, which expanded to $7.9 billion in February, possibly keeping pressure on China's government to keep the yuan undervalued.
The larger-than-expected trade deficit could cause analysts to reduce their estimates of the rate of economic growth in the first quarter. Many economists expect an annualized growth rate of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent in the quarter, but higher imports will subtract from that rate.
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