Japan Surplus On Trade Rose In December
TOKYO -- Japan's trade surplus grew a greater-than-expected 14% in December, including a 23% expansion in the surplus with the U.S. that could worsen trade tensions between the two countries.</br></br>Japan's merchandise trade surplus rose to 1.415 trillion yen ($12.36 billion) on a customs-cleared basis in December from 1.237 trillion yen a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said. The December figures reversed a narrowing of 16% in the trade surplus in November, and set the country's surplus growing again for the 20th time in the past 21 months.</br></br>For all of 1998, Japan's trade surplus expanded 40% to 13.985 trillion yen, while the surplus with the U.S. grew 33% to 6.697 trillion yen, the ministry said. Japan's trade surplus with the rest of Asia shrank 36% last year to 3.977 trillion yen.</br></br>In December, Japan's overall exports fell 12% to 4.130 trillion yen. But in a continuation of a pattern that has pushed Japan's surplus steadily higher since Asia's economic crisis hit, imports fell even faster, declining 22% to 2.715 trillion yen. On the import side, it was the steepest monthly drop in 12 years. Exports to the U.S. fell 6.1% to 1.175 trillion yen, while imports from the U.S. fell 25% to 578 billion yen, bringing Japan's surplus for the month to 597.26 billion yen.</br></br>Japan's surplus could expand further if the country's weak economy continues to overwhelm the boost a strengthening yen usually gives to imports. A stronger yen tends to make imports more appealing because they cost less in yen terms. Still, in December, the drop in imports came despite an increase in the yen's value to an average of 119.91 per dollar in December from 128.18 yen per dollar the previous December.