Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Japan's trade surplus with Asia jumps 62%
REUTERS
TOKYO: Japan's trade surplus with Asia soared 62.6 per cent in April, helped by a smaller deficit with China and a widening surplus with South Korea and Taiwan, the finance ministry said Wednesday.
Surplus with Asia, the largest export market for Japan, expanded 62.6 per cent from a year earlier to 667.2 billion yen ($6 billion) to post a 10th consecutive monthly gain.
Asia-bound exports rose 19.6 per cent 2.49 trillion yen, with shipments of cameras and other optical equipment jumping 42.2 per cent, and electronic parts up 13.4 per cent.
Exports of steel products to Asia rose 25.7 per cent due to "a shipbuilding boom in South Korea," according to a ministry official. Japan's exports to China rose 18.8 per cent while imports grew 12.9 per cent.
"The pace of growth in exports to China somewhat slowed as exports to China have until recently been rising 30-40 per cent year on year," the official noted.
He observed that it was uncertain whether the slowdown might have been caused by anti-inflation measures by the Chinese banking regulators, such as reducing money in circulation.
Shuji Shirota, senior economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Tokyo, said: "Japan's deficit with China has been shrinking due to increased exports but the latest data showed export volume was falling slightly.
"Imports from the Asian region climbed 9.1 per cent to 1.83 trillion yen as purchases of electronics parts, such as semiconductors, increased 29.2 per cent. Imports of office equipment, such as computers, rose 20.8 per cent and audio-video devices were up 27.0 per cent.
Japan's overall trade surplus in April rose 30.3 per cent to 1.08 trillion yen, with the surplus with the United States falling 2.4 per cent to 553.5 billion yen.
The surplus with the European Union expanded 1.6 per cent to 275.2 billion yen.
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