Photo taken on March 27 shows the White House in Washington DC. Photo: Xinhua

 The overall US trade deficit in August widened to the highest level in 14 years as imports rose faster than exports, the US Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

US exports rose by 2.2 percent to 171.9 billion US dollars in August while imports increased by 3.2 percent to 239 billion dollars, the department said, adding the figures reflected "both the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continued recovery from the sharp declines earlier this year."

The overall trade deficit in August rose by 5.9 percent to 67.1 billion dollars from a revised 63.4 billion dollars in July. That was the largest monthly trade deficit since August 2006. Year to date, the trade deficit was 5.7 percent higher than it was in 2019, according to the department.

"Trade flows continued to recover in August, but imports are growing much faster than exports, which sets up trade to be a sizeable drag on third quarter growth," Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery, economists at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote Tuesday in a note.

"The August data leave imports just 3% below their pre-virus level, which is in stark contrast to exports, which remain down 18%," they noted, adding exports continued to be bogged down by travel services, which fell again in August.

"Travel and transportation services continue to be hampered by travel restrictions and the virus more broadly. We expect the rebound in exports to gradually take hold, as global growth begins to pick up," they said.