TOKYO, Dec 15 (NNN-NHK) – Japan logged a 2.03-trillion yen (14.95-billion U.S. dollar) trade deficit in Nov, a record for the month and marking the 16th straight month of red ink, amid higher energy prices and a weaker yen, the government said in a report today.
According to the Finance Ministry, the country’s imports jumped 30.3 percent from a year earlier to, 10.86 trillion yen (79.98 billion U.S. dollars), pushed up by soaring prices for energy-linked imports, while exports were up 20 percent to, 8.84 trillion yen (65.09 billion U.S. dollars), as Japan heads towards booking its largest-ever annual trade deficit at the end of 2022.
Japan’s deficit has climbed to 18.51 trillion yen (136.30 billion U.S. dollars) this year, well past the current record high logged in 2014 of 12.82 trillion yen (94.40 billion U.S. dollars), according to the ministry’s data.
In the same period, Japan logged a trade surplus of 680.39 billion yen (5.01 billion U.S. dollars) with the United States, with exports leaping 32.5 percent to 1.72 trillion yen (12.67 billion U.S. dollars), while imports jumped 21.5 percent to 1.04 trillion yen (7.66 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Finance Ministry.
The prevailing view among leading economists here remains that, in the first half of 2023, Japan will slip into a mild recession, amid a global slowdown that will further hit the resource-poor country’s sluggish exports.
This, economists said, is evidenced by the economy here unexpectedly shrinking for the first time in four quarters in the July-Sept period, and the current account turning red in both Jan and Oct, this year.
Japan’s poor fiscal health, the worst in the industrialised world, has also been punctuated by a persistently weak yen, owing to a widening interest rate gap between the Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve, they added.– NNN-NHK
