WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade deficit in September fell by 5.3 percent month on month to 44 billion U.S. dollars due to a decline in imports demand, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

The September trade deficit dropped 5.3 percent from the 46.5 billion U.S. dollars level in August, due to a surge in exports of airplanes, engines, alcoholic beverages, coal, jewelry and other items.

For September, exports of U.S. goods and services overseas continued to edge up by 0.3 percent month on month to 154.1 billion U.S. dollars.

September imports dropped 1 percent month on month to 198.1 billion U.S. dollars, due to a decrease in imports of manufactured goods and agricultural commodities.

The exports value in September was the highest level since September 2008. U.S. imports, which had kept rising in recent months, posted a slight decline in September, helping to narrow the nation's trade deficit.

However, the trade deficit of the world's largest economy in the first nine months of this year was still 40.3 percent higher compared with the same period last year.

In order to pull the economy out of a slow recovery and stubbornly high unemployment rate, the Obama administration launched the National Export Initiative in March and set the goal of doubling the U.S. exports in five years while creating two million jobs.