The U.S. current account deficit surged to 804.9 billion dollars in 2005, setting a new record, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The current account deficit, the combined balances on trade in goods and services, income, and net unilateral current transfers, was up 20.4 percent from the previous record of 668.1 billion hit in 2004.

As a share of U.S. gross domestic product, the current account deficit rose to 6.4 percent last year from 5.7 percent in 2004.

Last year, the deficit on goods and services increased to 723.6 billion dollars from 617.6 billion in 2004.

The deficit on goods rose to 781.6 billion dollars from 665.4 billion while the surplus on services climbed to 58.0 billion dollars from 47.8 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, U.S. surplus on income decreased to 1.6 billion dollars last year from 30.4 billion in 2004.

U.S. unilateral current transfers were net outflows of 82.9 billion dollars, up from net outflows of 80.9 billion dollars in 2004.

For the fourth quarter of last year, the U.S. current account deficit rose to an all-time high of 224.9 billion dollars, or 21.3 percent up from 185.4 billion in the third quarter.

The rise was mostly accounted for by increases in net unilateral current transfers and in the deficit on goods. In addition, the balance on income shifted to a deficit from a surplus, and the surplus on services decreased.

During the October-to-December period, the deficit on goods and services increased to 197.4 billion dollars from 181.4 billion dollars in the third.

The balance on income shifted to a deficit of 2.4 billion dollars from a surplus of 4.9 billion in the third quarter.

Unilateral current transfers were net outflows of 25.1 billion dollars in the fourth quarter, up from net outflows of 8.9 billion dollars in the third.

At the same time, the current account deficit was revised to 185.4 billion dollars from 195.8 billion dollars initially estimated.

Source: Xinhua