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Trade gap narrows in August on lower oil prices


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

    (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by James Dalgleish)