June trade gap narrows to $58.1 billion

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in June as a weaker dollar and overseas growth boosted exports to a new record, offsetting record imports that were lifted by higher oil prices and record high capital goods imports, a government report showed on Tuesday.

The June trade gap totaled $58.1 billion, down 1.7 percent from a downwardly revised May deficit of $59.2 billion, originally reported as $60 billion. The June deficit was the smallest since February's $57.6 billion gap and was below the median forecast of $61 billion from Wall Street analysts polled by Reuters, according to the Commerce Department data.

Overall goods and services exports rose 1.5 percent from May to a record $134.5 billion, led by a $1.2 billion increase in industrial supplies and materials and record exports of vehicles, auto parts and engines and of foods, feeds and beverages.

Rising U.S. exports are contributing to a narrowing of the trade gap on an annual basis and are helping to underpin domestic growth in the face of a steep housing downturn and credit market turmoil.

U.S. imports rose 0.5 percent to $192.7 billion as the U.S. oil import bill edged higher to $19.6 billion and imports of capital goods such as computers hit a new record.