TOKYO (AP) – Japan posted a trade surplus of 513.5 billion yen ($5.1 billion) in July, though exports sank 14 percent from a year earlier as the yen surged against the dollar, the government reported Thursday.
The fall in exports by the world’s third-largest economy was outpaced by a nearly 25 percent drop in imports, suggesting persisting weakness in domestic demand. Both were the sharpest monthly year-on-year drops since 2009.
Japan posted a trade deficit of 261.4 billion yen in July 2015.
The recent rise in the value of the Japanese yen, to about 99 yen per U.S. dollar, has helped reduce costs for oil and gas imports. Japan’s imports of fuels, the biggest category of imports for this resource-scarce nation, fell 42 percent in July from the year before.
The strong yen also has pinched exports, hobbling efforts to keep the economic recovery on track. But in volume terms the decline for both was milder: export volumes fell 2.5 percent while import volumes fell 4 percent from a year earlier, Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in an analysis.