Washington ? The deficit in the broadest measure of trade swelled to a record $541.8 billion in 2003, according to a government report that comes as trade and the loss of jobs have become major issues in the presidential campaign.

The latest snapshot of trade activity released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed that the “current account” deficit last year was 12.7 percent bigger than the previous all-time high deficit of $480.9 billion in 2002.

The current account report is considered the best measure of a country’s international economic standing because it tracks not just the goods and services reflected in the government’s monthly trade reports but also investment flows between countries and unilateral transfers.

“This is a difficult situation. Exports will have to grow about roughly twice as fast as imports just to keep the deficit constant,” said Clifford Waldman, economist at the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a research group.

“The message here is that it is going to take a lot more than just strong dollar depreciation to turn the deficit around,” he said. A weaker dollar makes U.S. goods less expensive for foreigners to buy.

The Bush administration says the best way to handle the mushrooming deficits is to get other countries to remove trade barriers and open their markets to U.S. companies. But Democrats and other critics point to the deficits as evidence that the president’s free-trade policies aren’t working and are contributing to the loss of U.S. jobs.

President Bush in speeches this week promoted his free-trade policies and spoke out against economic isolationism — a swipe at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, though Bush didn’t mention him by name.

Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, has said he would place all trade deals under a 120-day review and would require companies to provide notice before moving jobs to other countries.

Since Bush took office in January 2001, the economy has lost 2.2 million jobs. That’s something that Kerry and other Democrats have made a point of emphasizing to voters.

In the current account report, the United States’ deficit in goods was the main factor in the bigger overall deficit for 2003.

The deficit in goods widened last year to $549.4 billion, from $482.9 billion in 2002.

In the services category, the United States is running a surplus. However, the surplus in services narrowed in 2003 to $59.2 billion, compared with $64.8 billion in 2002.

Investment earnings shifted to a surplus of $16.6 billion in 2003, from a deficit of $4 billion in 2002. The deficit in the category of unilateral transfers, which includes payments that the United States makes in foreign aid to other countries, widened to $68.3 billion last year, from $58.9 billion in 2002.

Separately, the Labor Department said Friday it had made “substantial progress” toward completing calculations for January’s report on wholesale prices. The January and February reports have been delayed because of difficulties converting current categories to a new classification system. New release dates haven’t been set yet.