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U.S. trade gap narrows in August on lower oil prices

WASHINGTON - Falling oil prices helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in August, while both exports and imports retreated from records set in July, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday.

The trade gap shrank 3.5 percent to $59.1 billion from a downwardly revised estimate of $61.3 billion in July. Analysts surveyed before the report had forecast the August trade gap to shrink to $58.8 billion.

Exports fell 2 percent in August, the biggest one-month drop in more than four years, but were still the second-highest on record at $164.7 billion. Exports of capital goods and petroleum set records in August.

Imports fell 2.4 percent to $223.9 billion, also the second-highest on record. Imports of consumer goods and food, feeds and beverages set category records.

The United States' monthly oil import bill fell to $37.0 billion in August after rising in each of the five previous months. The average price for imported oil dropped to $119.99 per barrel from the record set in August of $124.66.

Imports of foreign car and car parts were the lowest since March 2005 in a sign of weak demand for big-ticket goods.