High oil prices trim Japan’s trade surplus 10.4%

Japan’s customs-cleared trade surplus shrank 10.4 percent in April from a year earlier to 962.8 billion yen as high oil prices inflated the value of imports, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

Despite the surplus fall after a 0.1 percent rise in March, exports marked the second-highest level on record, growing 7.8 percent to 5.507 trillion yen in April for the 17th straight month of increase, the ministry said in a preliminary report.

Imports rose 12.7 percent to 4.544 trillion yen, the third-highest on record, for the 14th straight monthly expansion, it said.


JapanTimes