The US trade deficit in goods and services rose 22.3% month-on-month to a record us $109.8 billion in March, driven by a surge in imports, data from the Commerce Department showed Tuesday.

Us imports of goods and services rose 10.3% month-on-month to a record $351.5 billion in March, data showed. Exports of goods and services rose 5.6 per cent month-on-month to $241.7bn.

The goods trade deficit rose by $20.4bn from the previous month to $128.1bn, with goods imports surging to $298.8bn, reflecting the impact of the surge in global oil and other commodity prices since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Imports of industrial supplies and materials rose $11.3 billion in March from the previous month, with crude oil imports up $1.2 billion.

Analysts believe that as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world and supply chain problems continue to plague global trade, the ballooning trend of the US trade deficit will be difficult to change in the short term or continue to drag down the economic recovery.