by Daniel Costello

The weaker dollar and slumping demand for oil narrowed the US trade gap and signaled that the US economy could be growing faster than anticipated, commerce department figures showed on Thursday.

The trade gap shrank 7.6 percent to $32.9 billion, from a downwardly revised estimate of $35.7 billion in September. Analysts surveyed before the report had expected the gap to widen to about $36.8 billion.

U.S. exports of goods and services were the highest since November 2008 and imports the highest since December 2008.