Trade gap at 5-year low as imports slump

Washington

THE trade deficit in the US shrank in February to the lowest level in more than five years as a labour dispute at West Coast ports contributed to the weakest reading on purchases from abroad since 2011.

The gap, which measures the difference in the value between imports and exports, narrowed by US$7.2 billion to US$35.4 billion - lower than the lowest forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the smallest since October 2009, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

Imports contracted 4.4 per cent, the biggest slump since February 2009, when the economy was still in the …