ANKARA
The U.S. fourth quarter current account deficit was the largest since 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement Thursday.
The deficit, which measures the difference between imports and exports, widened to $113.5 billion from $98.9 billion in the third quarter, much higher than analysts expected.
For the entire year, the current account deficit rose 2.6 percent to $410.6 billion, the largest annual deficit since 2012.
The strong U.S. dollar cut heavily into exports, while domestic demand for imports was still not strong, the statement said.
In the fourth quarter, goods and services exports and income receipts fell 1.3 percent to $820.9 billion, as demand for exports in Europe and Asia declined.
Imports were up 0.3 percent to $717.5 billion on weak consumer demand.
Separately, U.S. initial claims for unemployment benefits were little-changed, up a small fraction. This indicated that unemployment is likely to be further reduced in the near future.
The weak current account deficit data could suggest to the U.S. Federal Reserve that interest rates should remain unchanged.
The Fed has linked interest rate hikes to improved economic data.
