Japan posted its biggest monthly trade deficit in eight years in January as high energy costs swelled imports and the industry struggled to deal with supply constraints, causing car shipments to fall.
The widening trade deficit highlights the vulnerability of the world’s third-largest economy to soaring commodity costs and slowing demand from neighboring China.
Imports soared 39.6% in January from a year earlier, hitting a record yen value of 8.5231 trillion yen ($73.81 billion), data from the Ministry of Finance this Thursday (17), against the market’s expectation of a high of 37.1%.
This strongly outpaced the 9.6% increase in exports, leaving the trade balance with a deficit of 2.1911 trillion yen, the largest in a single month since January 2014.
The deficit was much larger than the estimated negative balance of 1.607 trillion yen.
A big factor would have been the drop in car exports. Manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp have been forced to temporarily close some factories after facing supply chain problems and pressure from a record increase in Covid-19 cases in the country.
Imports, in turn, were supported by increased inflows of oil, coal and liquefied natural gas.
Source: CNN Brasil
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