The overall U.S. trade deficit on Friday widened to $54.9 billion in August amid protracted trade tensions, its figures showed.

The U.S. Commerce Department said it was up from the revised 54 billion dollars in July and higher than economists’ expectation for 54.4 billion dollars.

The department said the U.S. exports in August increased to 207.9 billion dollars, 0.5 billion dollars more than that in July, while imports rose to 262.8 billion dollars, up 1.3 billion dollars from the previous month.

Meanwhile, Trump’s administration tried to shrink the trade gap by imposing additional tariffs on various imports, the U.S. trade deficit widened to 428.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2019.

It, however, went up 28.3 billion dollars, or 7.1 per cent, from the same period in 2018.

The U.S. economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), noted that its persistent deficit with trading partners resulted from its macroeconomic policy.

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The economists, however, urged it to adopt fiscal consolidation and implement structural policies to address external imbalances, rather than resorting to distorted trade actions.

(Xinhua/NAN)