President Joe Biden’s first year in office has not only seen inflation run at the fastest pace in four decades. It has also seen the trade deficit expand to the widest import-export gap on record.

The trade deficit of goods and services grew by 1.8 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted $80.7 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, slightly less than the record deficit of $80.8 billion reached in September.

The full-year trade deficit for 2021 increased 27 percent to $859.1 billion, passing the previous record of $763.53 billion set in 2006. Commerce Department records go back to 1960.

The sharp increase comes from a U.S. economy stricken with a weakened manufacturing sector that could not expand to match consumer demand as the country emerged from the pandemic. American consumers spent heavily on goods which in past decades would have expanded U.S. production but now fuels imports.