The negative balance of goods and services with the rest of the world grew to $ 80.2 billion, an increase of 19.4% and 10 billion more than expected by analysts.
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The US trade deficit widened far more than expected in November as record goods imports driven by US consumer demand and easing supply chain problems
The deficit of goods and services with the rest of the world amounted to 80.2 billion dollars, an increase of 19.4% compared to the previous month.
Imports are up 4.6% to $ 304.4 billion while exports, which rebounded in October, rose only 0.2% to $ 224.2 billion.
Analysts were forecasting a much lower deficit at $ 69.4 billion.
On goods alone, the deficit reached 98.9 billion dollars, a record.
Cumulated over the first 11 months of the year, the deficit widens by 28.6% compared to the same period of 2020, a year marked by a historic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which had paralyzed trade flows in the world.
But 2021 saw a sustained recovery in demand.
In November alone, the world’s largest economy massively imported a range of goods ranging from industrials, toys and sporting goods to cars, auto equipment and crude oil, a sign that the problems logistics have penalized importers less than in previous months.
President Joe Biden himself has stressed in recent weeks that these difficulties are being resolved.
The White House had pushed in October for the 24-hour opening of the port of Los Angeles, the largest in the United States, to speed up the unloading of goods and reduce the queue of freighters waiting their turn for unload.
Then in early November, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had imposed a levy on shipping carriers on their cargoes staying on the docks for more than eight days.
But in November, the United States was not yet struck by the wave of infections by the Omicron variant that is currently disrupting many companies.
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