Trade Red Ink on the Rise for U.S.

The U.S. trade deficit jumped nearly 19% in December. That pushes the trade imbalance for all of 2018 to a decade-high of $621 billion dollars.

The Commerce Department says the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from other countries rose to $59.8 billion in December. That’s up from $50.3 billion in November. The trade gap on goods surged to record highs last year with China ($419.2 billion), Mexico ($81.5 billion) and the European Union ($169.3 billion).

December’s trade imbalance worsened because U.S. imports rose 2.1%, while exports to other countries fell by 1.9%.