Japan’s Current Account Surplus Hits 1st-Half Record

Tokyo, Aug. 10 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s current account surplus expanded to 17,429.2 billion yen in January-June, hitting a record for the first half thanks to growing exports of semiconductors to Asia, the Finance Ministry said Monday. The surplus in the current account, the broadest measure of a country’s international trade and investment flows, grew 22.5 pct from a year earlier. In goods trade, Japan swung into a surplus of 742.1 billion yen from the year-before deficit of 1,463.6 billion yen on brisk exports of automobiles in addition to semiconductors. The surplus in the primary income account, which mainly covers Japanese companies’ dividend and interest receipts from abroad, inched up 0.3 pct to 20,491.4 billion yen, as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts last year reduced interest payments on overseas debt. Japan saw its services trade deficit widen by 243.8 billion yen to 1,822.3 billion yen as an increase in the number of Japanese traveling abroad led to a narrower travel services surplus. In June alone, Japan posted a current account deficit of 92.3 billion yen, its first deficit in 17 months. The country swung into a goods trade deficit due to increased crude oil import costs amid the war in Iran while its surplus in the primary income account narrowed because of dividend payments by Japanese companies to overseas shareholders. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]