US trade deficit jumps to 10-year high

The US trade deficit witnessed a jump of 19 percent in December. The gap with China on goods widened to an record of 419.2 billion US dollars.

New York: The US trade deficit jumped nearly 19 percent in December, pushing the trade imbalance for all of 2018 to a decadelong high of 621 billion US dollars.

The gap with China on goods widened to an record of 419.2 billion US dollars.

"Well, the imbalance was there mainly because we import more than we export," says Sam Stovall, Chief Investment Strategist at CFRA Research in New York. "The US is much more of a services type of economy."

America's appetite for imports appears to have increased after the tariffs that Trump imposed last year.

Stovall says some of that is due to businesses buying up large quantities of goods from China before the tariffs went into place.

The greater reliance on Chinese imports also likely reflects an acceleration in economic growth last year from Trump's debt-funded tax cuts, which were designed to increase spending by consumers and businesses.