TOKYO, Oct 22: Japan’s trade surplus has continued to fall, declining 18.3 per cent in September from a year ago as exports were slowed by the global economic slump, especially in the hi-tech sector, the finance ministry said on Monday.
The effect of the Japanese domestic economic slump weighed far more heavily on the trade figures than the impact of the recent terrorist attacks in the United States, economists said.
The September trade surplus fell to $8.7 billion , with exports losing 11.1 per cent to 4.16 trillion yen and imports declining 8.3 per cent to 3.10 trillion yen, the ministry said.
We need to pay more attention to the future developments in imports after the magnitude of the decline increased in September, an official with the finance ministry said.
He added it was hard to gauge the effect of the September 11, attacks on the figures, but the slowdown in the information technology and telecommunications sectors was the most important factor.
The impact of the attacks on the United States is unclear, though the data covers activity for the whole of September.
But all things considered, both exports and imports have been affected by weakness in demand for semiconductors and other electronic parts, office automation equipment and cellular phones, the official said.
Richard Jerram, chief economist ING Barings said the fall in imports was worrying.
The recession is starting to bite more broadly in Japan, he said.
Japan’s trade surplus with the US fell 9.6 per cent in the month to 682.9 billion yen with exports falling 11.9 per cent to 1.21 trillion yen and imports down 14.6 per cent at 531.5 billion yen.
The trade data was the first in Japan to reflect the terrorist attacks in the US.
It appears that the impact of the terrorist attacks on the trade figures was pretty small, said Makoto Ishikawa, economist at the Japan Research Institute.
The trade figures against the United States have fallen. But auto exports (to the US), for example, have gone up. Overall, at this point, I think the impact of the global IT (information technology) slump was a bigger factor.
The severe slump in the Japanese economy resulted in the drop in imports from the United States, dwarfing the effect of the terrorist attacks, Ishikawa said.
The trade surplus with the rest of Asia plunged 31.6 per cent to 316.99 billion yen in September as exports fell 14.8 per cent to 1.65 trillion yen and imports declined 9.5pc to 1.33 trillion yen.
Japan’s trade surplus with the European Union dropped 24.8 per cent to 239.7 billion yen, with exports falling 11.1pc to 640.5 billion yen while imports edged down 0.2pc to 400.8 billion yen.
Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Masaru Hayami said Monday uncertainty over the future course of the Japanese economy was increasing.
In a speech to a meeting of BoJ branch managers, Hayami said the concern is growing that further declines in exports may further pressure the economy.
In the six months to September, the trade surplus fell 43.1 per cent from a year earlier to 3.30 trillion yen, the ministry said.
Total exports fell 6.1 per cent to 24.33 trillion yen while total imports rose 4.6 per cent to 21.03 trillion yen.
The economic outlook (for Japan) remains uncertain. If the US retaliation ends by the end of the coming spring, we should be able to avoid chaos and a severe contraction of the global economy and finance, Ishikawa said.
The trade data had little impact in the foreign exchange market, where the dollar was quoted at 121.65 in Tokyo up from 121.15 yen in New York and 121.17-20 yen in Tokyo late Friday.
The dollar’s strength was more to do with a falling euro than the trade figures, dealers said.
Tokyo shares were also barely affected said Nomura Securities market analyst Tatsuo Kurokawa.
The Nikkei 225 average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed up 26.62 points or 0.3 per cent Monday at 10,565.41.—AFP