The U.S. deficit in international trade of goods and services fell by 5.6% to US$62 billion from a revised US$65.64 billion in February, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday. February’s shortfall was previously estimated at US$65.74 billion.

The March shortfall in trade was smaller than Wall Street predicted. Economists had forecast a deficit of US$67.50 billion.

U.S. exports increased by 1.9% to a record US $114.66 billion in March from US$112.52 billion in February.

Imports fell by 0.8% to US$176.66 billion.

Deficits with major trading partners were mixed.

The shortfall with China expanded to US$15.57 billion from US$13.84 billion in February. The deficit with Canada, however, decreased to US$5.35 billion from US$7.23 billion.

The deficit with Japan rose to US$7.58 billion from US$7.11 billion.

The trade gap with the euro area increased to US$8.09 billion from US$6.46 billion. The monthly shortfall with Mexico rose to US$5.42 billion from US$4.73 billion.

A separate report showed prices for imported goods surged in April on the back of soaring energy prices, though excluding energy, inflationary pressures emanating from abroad remained well contained.

Import prices increased 2.1%, the largest increase since September 2005, after falling 0.2% the previous month, the U.S. Labor Department said. Wall Street economists had expected April import prices would rise by 1.2%.