Japan records surprise trade surplus in three months
21 Jul 2011
In a surprise recovery, Japan, the world's third largest economy posted its first trade surplus in three months this June, indicating a faster than expected economic recovery after the March disasters.
Japan registered an unexpected trade surplus of 70.7 billion yen ($897 million) in June, about a tenth of the year-before, throwing out expectations of a deficit, finance ministry data showed.
Analysts had on average expected a deficit of 148.6 billion yen, according to a poll by Dow Jones Newswires and the Nikkei business daily.
Few analysts were expecting a drop of 4.1 per cent, after exports recorded a 10.3 per cent year-on-year fall in May.
Exports were still down from a year earlier, but rose by 5.4 per cent from May.
Exports decreased 1.6 per cent to 5.78 trillion yen in June y-o-y, however that is the slowest fall in four months, the report said. It was a much smaller drop compared with falls of 10.3 per cent in May and 12.4 per cent in April.
