Trade deficit erodes Japan's may current account surplus

Japan's current account surplus shrank 62.6 percent in May from a year earlier to 215.1 billion yen, affected by a continued goods trade deficit as a result of large energy resource imports, the government said Monday. The balance of international payments, one of the widest gauges of trade for a country, deteriorated also due to the biggest fall in nearly two years in the income account balance, which the Finance Ministry said was caused by the one-time effect of a large capital outflow from Japan, Japanese News Agency (Kyodo) reported Monday. The value of goods exports showed signs of continued recovery, up 11.3 percent to 5,054.2 billion yen for the third straight month of increase. But imports were bigger, rising 11.1 percent to 5,902.5 billion yen, expanding for more than two years, and as a result the trade balance logged 848.2 billion yen in deficit. Vehicles and auto parts led the gain of exports, largely helped by a U.S. economic recovery, the ministry said in a preliminary report. However, the imports of energy resources, particularly liquefied natural gas, have remained a significant weight on the balance. Japanese utilities have boosted thermal power generation to cover the lack of atomic power in the country amid safety concerns following the crisis at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant last year. The ministry said the adverse implication of large LNG imports will likely diminish in the second half of the year.