1st LD Writethru: Japan posts trade surplus in 1st half of 2016

Japan posted trade surplus in the first half of this year, the first time for a half-year period since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, with both exports and imports value declining from a year earlier, official data showed on Monday.

The country's trade surplus stood at 1.81 trillion yen (17 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months of this year, converting from a deficit of 1.70 trillion yen in the preceding year, showed preliminary statistics released Monday by the Ministry of Finance.

In the January-June period, Japan's exports value fell 8.7 percent on year to 34.52 trillion yen, and imports value tumbled 17.2 percent on year to 32.7 trillion yen.

During the six-month period, exports value to China, Japan's major trading partner, decreased 9.0 percent on year to 5.89 trillion yen, and imports value from China dropped 10.2 percent on year to 8.47 trillion yen.

In the same period, Japan's exports to the United States slid 6.5 percent to 7.04 trillion yen, while imports from the United States went down 12.1 percent to 3.63 trillion yen.

Japan's exports to the 28-member European Union rose 4.0 percent to 4.04 trillion yen in the period, while imports from the region shed 0.2 percent to 4.04 trillion yen.

In the single month of June, Japan's goods trade surplus came to 692.8 billion yen following a deficit in May, with exports and imports down 7.4 percent and 18.8 percent from the previous year, respectively. Endit