The United States’ deficit in the broadest measure of trade shot up to an all-time high in the third quarter reflecting the huge jump in the country’s foreign oil bill.

The U.S. Commerce Dept. reported today that the current-account trade deficit increased 3.9% to a record US$225.6 billion in the July-September quarter.

That represented 6.8% of the country’s total economy, up from 6.6% of the gross domestic product in the spring quarter.

The deficit in the summer of 2006 was slightly smaller than expected. Economists predicted a gap of US$226.9 billion.

The current account is the broadest measure of U.S. trade because it tracks not only the flow of goods and services across borders but also investment flows. The figure is closely watched by economists because it represents the amount of money the country must borrow from foreigners to make up the difference between what the United States imports and what it sells overseas.

The current-account deficit is expected to hit a new record for the full year, far surpassing the 2005 US$791.5 billion imbalance even though the shortfall for the fourth quarter is likely to show an improvement, reflecting the drop in oil prices after hitting records this summer.

A US$200.3 billion third-quarter shortfall in goods and services trade was bigger than the second-quarter’s revised US$193.1 billion; the second-quarter gap was originally seen at US$193.8 billion. Third-quarter imports of goods climbed to US$480.7 billion from US$463.4 billion; the increase resulted from higher imports of petroleum and non-petroleum products. Exports of goods advanced to US$262.1 billion from US$252.8 billion.

While U.S. trade of goods was at a deficit, services trade was at a surplus. That cushion rose to US$18.3 billion from the second-quarter’s US$17.5 billion.