ZCZC
BCN-01
JAPAN-ECONOMY-TRADE
Japan trade surplus drops sharply on higher oil imports
TOKYO, Dec 18, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – Japan’s trade surplus fell sharply in
November, the government said Monday, as the rising cost of oil and
smartphone imports outweighed strong exports of cars and steel.
The world’s third-largest economy logged a surplus of 113.4 billion yen
($1.0 billion), a 22-percent drop from a 146.5-billion-yen surplus a year
earlier, according to finance ministry data.
Exports rose for the 12th consecutive month on sound exports of chip-
making equipment, cars and steel.
But imports also grew for a 11th straight month, chiefly due to a rise in
imports of smartphone handsets, crude oil and non-ferrous metals.
The ministry said the yen was on average 8.2 percent cheaper against the
US dollar in November compared to the same month a year earlier, making
Japan’s imports costlier.
Japan’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States rose
13.7 percent — the fifth monthly rise in a row — on increased exports of
automobiles and construction machines.
The nation’s trade flows with the US, over which the two countries battled
for decades into the 1990s, has become less of a hot-button issue under
recent presidential administrations, as China’s presence as a trade-surplus
nation has been growing.
Last week, the United States, European Union (EU) and Japan jointly
rounded on China’s “market-distorting subsidies” at the World Trade
Organization conference in Argentina.
With the EU, Japan logged the second consecutive monthly trade deficit
while its deficit with China — the ninth consecutive — rose 11.8 percent.
BSS/AFP/HR/0925