WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade deficit in August expanded by 8.8 percent from July to 46.3 billion U.S. dollars due to a surge in imports demand, the U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday.

For August, exports of U.S. goods and services overseas ticked up 0.2 percent month on month to 153.9 billion U.S. dollars, the highest level in two years, mainly boosted by sales of farming goods and other items.

However, the gain in exports was offset by a 2.1 percent imports increase in August month on month to 200.2 billion U.S. dollars, due to a spike in food, chemicals and related products imports.

Analysts held that the worsening monthly deficit trailing an improvement in July showed that the U.S. government's set target of doubling its exports within five years was not an easy task.

In order to pull the economy out of recession, Obama launched the National Export Initiative in March and set the goal of doubling the U.S. exports in five years and creating two million jobs in the country.