WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade deficit decreased by 6.6 percent to 37.29 billion dollars in January, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The January imbalance was lower than the 41 billion dollar deficit that economists had been expecting.

In the fist month of 2010, exports decreased by 0.3 percent, while imports slipped by 1.7 percent.

U.S. exports and imports both rose 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.