Business Notes TRADE

For three months straight, the statistics had been reassuring the U.S. that its troublesome trade deficit was finally on the mend. Last week came a setback. The Government said the trade gap widened to $12.5 billion in June, from $9.8 billion the previous month. Both sides of the balance sheet showed that overseas producers were once again grabbing a larger share of the market. U.S. exports, which had been rising robustly thanks to the downsized dollar, slumped 2.4%, to $26.8 billion. Imports arrived in a fresh wave, rising 5.7%, to $39.4 billion.

Yet financial markets took the news in stride, since the situation may not be as bad as the June figures suggest. For the first six months of 1988, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $140 billion, a significant improvement from 1987's record $170 billion gap.