WASHINGTON, March 14: The US current account deficit widened to a colossal new high of $804.9 billion in 2005 as consumers binged on cheap imported goods, the government said on Tuesday.

Huge gaps in oil and goods trade pushed the broadest measure of commercial and capital flows up from the 2004 deficit of $668.1 billion, amounting to a record 6.4 per cent of gross domestic product last year.

The Commerce Department said that in the fourth quarter of 2005, the current account deficit surged by 21.3 per cent from the previous three months to a record $224.9 billion.

That amounted to an unprecedented 7.0 per cent of GDP. Economists were expecting a deficit of $218.0 billion for the quarter.

The deficit had fallen in the third quarter as foreign insurance companies paid out for claims arising from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The country did enjoy surpluses on its overseas financial and corporate investments last year. But those were not nearly enough to overcome a tidal wave of imported goods, not least from China, and a swollen petroleum bill.—AFP