Higher oil boosts US trade gap

Rising oil prices over the last few months helped push the US trade gap wider in June and depressed consumer sentiment as August began, econ...

Rising oil prices over the last few months helped push the US trade gap wider in June and depressed consumer sentiment as August began, economic reports showed on Friday.

Soaring petroleum costs also boosted US import prices by 1.1 per cent in July, the government said.

‘‘Higher oil increasingly will creep into the indicators. Today, it biased the trade gap higher and pushed up import prices and also impeded the consumer sentiment number,’’ said Drew Matus, economist at Lehman Brothers in New York.

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‘‘But what we are looking for is a discernible impact on consumption or core price indicators, and that is going to be a little trickier to see,’’ he said.

The US trade deficit widened 6.1 per cent in June to $58.8 billion, as exports held roughly flat while petroleum purchases drove total imports to a new high. — Reuters

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