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WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. trade gap narrowed unexpectedly in August as services trade pushed exports slightly higher and imports fell by a fractionally larger amount, a U.S. Commerce Department report showed on Friday.
The monthly deficit was $30.7 billion, down 3.6 percent from a revised estimate of $31.9 billion for July. That reflected a 0.2 percent increase in exports to the highest since December and a 0.6 percent decline for imports.
Analysts surveyed before the report had expected imports to get more of a boost from a combination of higher oil prices and U.S. businesses rebuilding their inventories, and increase the August trade gap to around $33 billion.
