The US trade deficit hit an all-time monthly high of 61.04 billion US dollars in February following a surge in imports of oil and textiles, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday.

The US trade imbalance in the month was up 4.3 percent from the trade gap of 58.5 billion dollars in January as a small 50-million- dollar rise in US exports of goods and services was swamped by an increase of 2.58 billion dollars in imports.

The report said US exports in February totaled 100.5 billion dollars against imports valued at 161.5 billion dollars.

For the first two months of the year, the US trade deficit is running at an annual rate of 717.2 billion dollars, about 100 billion dollars above the record imbalance of 617.1 billion dollars set in 2004.

The Bush administration argues that the deficit reflects the fact that the US economy has been growing at a much faster pace than the economies of its major trading partners, pushing up imports while dampening demand for US exports.

The soaring US trade deficit is leading to an increase in protectionist pressures by American textile and clothing manufacturers in particular who are lobbying the government to limit imports of foreign textiles and clothing goods.

Source: Xinhua