Japan posts seventh straight monthly trade surplus
Japan's exports exceeded its imports for a seventh straight month in August, keeping the world's number two economy on a recovery path after its worst recession in decades, data showed Thursday.
Japan posted a trade surplus of 185.7 billion yen (2.0 billion dollars) last month, compared with a deficit of 314.2 billion yen a year earlier, the finance ministry said.
The figure beat market forecasts for a surplus of about 175 billion yen, but was smaller than July's surplus of 377.9 billion yen.
Exports shrank 36.0 percent last month from a year earlier to 4.51 trillion yen, hit by sharp falls in shipments of automobiles and steel. Imports fell 41.3 percent to 4.33 trillion yen due to lower energy costs.
Compared with July, exports edged down 0.7 percent as a stronger yen dampened overseas demand, but their overall uptrend remained intact, said Kyohei Morita, chief Japan economist at Barclays Capital.
"Japan's exports will not fall back as the economies of the United States and China -- which are important trading partners -- are likely to grow" thanks to government spending and recovering demand, he said.
The recovery in exports showed a standstill in August but growth for September could be robust, Credit Suisse economists said.
"Judging from (industrial) production forecasts and robust machinery order receipts on foreign demand, exports in September could rebound sharply," they said in a report.
Japan's heavy reliance on foreign markets to drive its economic growth left it highly vulnerable to the recent global recession.
Its economy returned to positive growth in April-June, limping out of a year-long recession, but exports and factory output remain much lower than before the economic crisis and unemployment is at a post-war high.
There is also concern about the impact of the stronger yen, which was trading at about 91 per dollar on Thursday, compared with a level well above 100 a year ago.
The yen's advance as a safe-haven currency during the global financial crisis has taken its toll on Japanese exports, said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research.
The higher yen has undermined the competitiveness of Japanese products on overseas markets, which is a concern because exports are still about one-third below their peak seen in February 2008, he said.
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