US Trade Deficit lower than January Forecasts.

The US trade deficit has risen by 0.6 percent to $58.2 billion from $57.9 billion from December as gains were made in exports due to the weaker dollar.

This is substantially lower than the 1.6 percent estimated by the Commerce Department, which represented the highest ever gap.

The country’s exports have increased due to the strength of the US dollar especially against the euro and the Sterling. This was supplemented by the growth emerging overseas markets in Asia.

The effect of the resurgence of US exports remains the main source of hope in an economy that is continually attacked on whether it is in recession or not.

Sal Guatieri senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, who correctly forecast a mere 0.6 percent rise said that “trade is shaping up to be one of the few drivers of growth this year” and so the economy still have the potential to remain buoyant.

China has overtaken Canada to become the US’s largest source of imported goods as sales increased to $20.3 billion from $18.8 billion in the prior month.

The Asian economies are buying more U.S. manufactured products as both Boeing Co. and Caterpillar Inc. have both reported similar increases close to a twenty percent increase in goods sold to countries such as China, India and Malaysia.

On the other hand imports have risen due to the purchase of crude oil due to increased demand and the astronomical price of $84.09 that it is traded at. Oil apart the $32.1 billion trade gap was the smallest since October 2002, although the oil deficit itself is at its widest margin since 1992.

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