Japan Post Largest Account Surplus Since 2010

August 10, 2015 Share Print 0

Japan posted a current account surplus of 8,183.5 billion yen in the January to June period, the largest since the second half of 2010, as lower crude oil prices pushed down imports and income increased on the back of a weaker yen, the government said Monday.

The surplus contrasts with a deficit of 497.7 billion yen a year earlier that largely resulted from rising imports of liquefied natural gas and crude oil after the devastating quake and tsunami disaster in March 2011 put nuclear power plants offline.

Japan has relied heavily on energy imports since the disaster crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan. With heightened public concerns about safety, all of the country’s 43 commercial nuclear reactors remain offline.

A current account balance is one of widest gauges of international trade for a nation.

The balance of goods trade marked a deficit of 422.0 billion yen, much smaller than the 6,201.4 billion yen the previous year, as exports increased 5.9 percent while imports fell 8.8 percent from the previous year, the Finance Ministry said.

via Mainichi

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.