Japan's trade surplus with Asia tumbles 72 percent

Japan's trade surplus with Asia tumbles 72 percent

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.