U.S. trade deficit fell 3.8 percent in January to 59.1 billion U.S. dollars as the country's exports surged to an all-time high, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.

The decline in the trade deficit, the gap between what the United States sells abroad and what it imports, marked the steepest change in the trade figure since last October.

Analysts had been expecting a gap of 60.0 billion dollars for January.

Data showed that U.S. exports of goods and services rose by 1.1 percent to 126.7 billion dollars in January, hitting an all-time high and reflecting gains in sales of American airplanes, computers and farm products such as soybeans and wheat.

Meanwhile, the country's imports of foreign goods and services edged down 0.5 percent to 185.8 billion dollars. Shipments of foreign cars, clothing, televisions and toys and games were all down.

America's foreign oil bill, however, increased by 5.4 percent to 24.5 billion dollars in January.

U.S. trade deficit reached 765.3 billion dollars in 2006, marking the fifth straight year that the trade gap set an annual record.

According to the Commerce Department, U.S. trade deficit with China grew 12 percent in January to 21.3 billion dollars. The U.S. deficit with the European Union (EU) plunged 28 percent to 6.5 billion dollars while its shortfall with Canada jumped 23 percent to 6.9 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua