WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade deficit jumped 9.7 percent to 36.4 billion U.S. dollars in November, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

    The November imbalance was bigger than the 34.5 billion dollar deficit that economists had been expecting.

    Through the first 11 months of 2009, the overall U.S. trade deficit in 2009 was running at an annual rate of 371.59 billion dollars, down sharply from the 695.94 billion dollar deficit in 2008.

    In November, exports rose 0.9 percent, the seventh consecutive gain, while imports increased a much faster 2.6 percent, led by a 7.3 percent rise in petroleum imports.

    U.S. exports and imports both rise in the past several months, a sign economists believe that U.S. economy was beginning to recover from the most serious recession since the Great Depression in 1930s.