NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The U.S. trade gap grew in June, according to a government report Friday that came in wider than Wall Street expectations.

The Commerce Department reported that U.S. imports outstripped exports by $58.8 billion in June, the third largest deficit in history. That was up from a revised $55.4 billion gap in May. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the gap to widen to $57.2 billion in the month, due to the rise in the price of imported oil.

Oil was a big part of the problem in June. The average crude oil import prices were up 3.1 percent in the month compared to May, and the volume of oil imports also increased 3.0 percent. That combined to lead to nearly a $1 billion increase in oil imports in the month.

The pressure on the trade gap from oil prices is likely only to get worse as prices for a September futures contract hit a record high in trading early Friday.

The trade gap with China, by far the largest deficit with any single trading partner, rose to $17.6 billion from $15.8 billion in May.

The trade gap was somewhat limited by a slim rise in U.S. exports to a record $106.8 billion from $106.7 billion in May.

"I guess if there's any surprise it's that I would have thought exports would have grown a little more than they did," said Jay Bryson, international economist for Wachovia Securities. "But in the second quarter everyone else had weaker economies, although more recent signs are that things abroad are picking up. So maybe June was too soon to look for an increase."

Bryson said that even if exports improve as he expects, the trade deficit is likely to grow to record levels in the August or September report. The record trade gap of $60.1 billion was set in February this year.

"Imports are about twice as large as exports, so just to stabilize the deficit, exports have to grow twice as fast," said Bryson. "That's a pretty tall order. Then you throw oil on top of it."

Bond prices rose following the trade report, pushing the yield on the 10-year treasury down to 4.30 percent from the 4.31 percent level seen ahead of the report. U.S. stocks opened lower Friday, although they were also hurt by the high oil prices and weaker that hoped from sales and earnings guidance from No. 1 personal computer maker Dell (Research) issued late Thursday.

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