The US current account deficit widened in the third quarter to $225.6 billion as surging oil prices pushed goods imports higher, a US Commerce Department report showed today.
The quarterly shortfall was largely in line with a midpoint estimate of $225 billion made by analysts before the report.
The third-quarter gap was the second largest on record as a percentage of GDP at 6.8 per cent, up from 6.6 per cent in the second quarter. The record of 7 per cent was set in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The Commerce Department lowered its estimate of the second-quarter current account shortfall to $217.1 billion, from $218.4 billion reported previously.
The current account, the broadest measure of US trade with the rest of the world, includes both trade in goods and investment flows.
The huge US current account deficit is viewed as one of the major risks to the world economy, along with surpluses in Asian and oil-exporting countries.