America's trade deficit in goods widens less than forecast

[WASHINGTON] America's merchandise trade gap widened less than forecast in April to US$57.5 billion after shrinking a month earlier to its smallest in more than a year, advanced data issued by the Commerce Department showed on Wednesday.

The goods-trade deficit, which grew 0.7 per cent last month from a final March reading of US$57.1 billion, was smaller than the US$60 billion median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Even with the improvement in March, the US trade gap in merchandise and services subtracted 0.34 percentage point from gross domestic product in the first quarter, the most in a year.

BLOOMBERG