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The US trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in January as volume fell for the first time in five months, led by a drop in imports, the government reported Thursday.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit shrank to a seasonally adjusted 37.3 billion dollars, down from a revised 39.9 billion dollars in December.

Most analysts had expected the trade gap would widen to 41.0 billion dollars.

Imports dropped 1.7 percent to 180.0 billion dollars, while exports slipped 0.3 percent to 142.7 billion dollars.

US trade volume with the rest of the world declined for the first time since August, by 1.1 percent from December.

The decrease in the trade deficit was partly due to a decline in crude oil imports to their weakest level since February 1999, at 245 million barrels, the Commerce Department noted.

The trade gap in petroleum products continued to weigh heavily on the US trade balance, though the deficit narrowed to 22.7 billion dollars in January from 23.6 billion dollars the previous month.

The average price of imported oil jumped to 73.89 dollars, its highest peak since October 2008.

In unadjusted data, the trade deficit with Canada, the largest US trading partner, grew to 3.9 billion dollars, marking the biggest gap since October 2008.

The politically sensitive trade deficit with China increased slightly, to 18.3 billion dollars from 18.1 billion in December.

The deficit with two important trading partners narrowed to its lowest level since May, at 3.3 billion dollars with Japan and 2.8 billion dollars with European Union.

AFP