Japan's surplus with Asia tumbles 72%

Japan's surplus with Asia tumbles 72%

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's trade surplus with Asia plunged 71.9
percent in August from a year earlier as Japanese consumers kept
buying mobile phones and other gadgets from overseas to sustain
electronics parts imports.

The trade surplus with the rest of Asia fell to 91.6 billion
yen (US$783 million) in August, marking a year-on-year fall for
the ninth consecutive month, the finance ministry said Thursday.

"Japanese consumption and corporate investments are slack but
spending on information-related sectors such as mobile phones is
not so bad," said Junichi Makino, senior economist at Daiwa
Institute of Research.

"This maintained Japanese imports of computers, mobile phones
and other electronics parts from Asian nations.

"On the other hand, exports such as steel products are very
weak," he said.

Japan's exports to the rest of Asia fell 13.8 percent to
1,577.5 billion yen while imports edged down 1.2 percent to
1,485.9 billion yen.

Imports of machinery and electronic devices sank 9.6 percent
but those of telecommunications equipment surging 41.0 percent.

Japan's overall trade surplus fell 47.2 percent in August from
a year earlier to 320.2 billion yen as exports fell 8.8 percent
against a 2.4 percent drop in imports.