U.S. Trade Deficit Widens Substantially In May

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday showed a substantial increase in the size of the U.S. trade deficit in the month of May.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit widened to $77.6 billion in May from a revised $54.6 billion in April.

Economists had expected the trade deficit to surge to $78.7 billion from the $55.9 billion originally reported for the previous month.

The sharply wider trade deficit came as the value of imports shot up by 3.3 percent to $395.3 billion, while the value of exports plunged by 3.2 percent to $317.7 billion.