TOKYO (AP) – Japan posted a better-than-expected trade surplus in June, as imports fell nearly 19 percent, outpacing a more modest decline in exports.
The customs data released Monday showed a 692.8 billion yen ($6.5 billion) surplus, compared with a 60.9 billion yen deficit in June 2015.
Economists had forecasted larger declines for both imports and exports for the world’s third-largest economy.
Despite the recent strengthening of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar, export prices have fallen 14 percent from a year earlier, according to separate data from the Bank of Japan. That trend is hurting corporate revenues and profits, Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary.
Overall volumes of exports and imports were better than expected. But Japan’s exports to the U.S., its biggest overseas market, fell 6.5 percent in June from a year earlier, while exports to China, its largest trading partner, dropped 10 percent.