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Roundup: Japan's 2015 current account surplus increases on oil price slum, surplus grows for 18th straight month in Dec.

Xinhua, February 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Japan's current account surplus expanded in 2015 from a year earlier to 16.64 trillion yen (142.30 billion U.S. dollars) as an oil glut and dropping import costs coupled with a comparatively weak yen helped widen margins, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Monday.

According to the ministry, goods trade for the year booked a deficit of 643.4 billion yen compared to 10.40 trillion yen logged a year earlier, owing to an ongoing downturn in oil prices helping the balance in the face of sluggish exports.

Considered one of the widest gauges of international trade, the surplus grew for the first time in five years, with imports retreating 10.3 percent to 75.82 trillion yen, compared to exports rising 1.5 percent to 75.18 trillion yen, helped by the value of crude oil imports dropping 41 percent and those for LNG falling 29.5 percent.

Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, the majority of the nation's nuclear reactors remain offline for safety checks, meaning that Japan has had to fork out to import fossil fuels to power the nation's grids. A weak yen makes these imports more expensive and pressures the government's margins, yet a drop in prices for crude oil offsets some of these costs.

The finance ministry also said that the weakness of the yen has also helped attract record numbers of foreign travelers, as favorable exchange rates boost the spending power of overseas tourists visiting Japan. The travel surplus hit 1.12 trillion yen in the recording year, marking the first time this component of the overall reading turned to a surplus since 1962.

Earnings from foreign investments jumped 14.7 percent to 20.78 trillion yen, expanding the primary income account surplus, as profits increased from both direct and investments from securities, aided by the yen's retreat, in the recording period, the ministry said.

For the month of December, the ministry said Japan logged a current account surplus for the 18th successive month, with the balance standing at 960.7 billion yen (8.21 billion U.S. dollars), with goods trade alone booking a surplus of 188.7 billion yen. Endit