AFP, Tokyo :
Japan recorded a double-digit drop in its trade surplus in July as costs of energy imports rose on a weaker yen, government data showed Thursday.
The world’s third-largest economy logged a surplus of 418.8 billion yen ($3.8 billion), down 17 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the finance ministry.
Overall exports in July rose 13.4 percent year-on-year, marking the eighth consecutive monthly gain on robust shipments of automobiles and semiconductors.
Imports grew 16.3 percent for a seventh monthly rise, boosted mainly by higher bills for liquefied natural gas and coal.
The ministry said that the yen was on average 9.0 percent cheaper against the US dollar in July compared to the same month the year before, making Japan’s imports costlier.
Japan recorded a double-digit drop in its trade surplus in July as costs of energy imports rose on a weaker yen, government data showed Thursday.
The world’s third-largest economy logged a surplus of 418.8 billion yen ($3.8 billion), down 17 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the finance ministry.
Overall exports in July rose 13.4 percent year-on-year, marking the eighth consecutive monthly gain on robust shipments of automobiles and semiconductors.
Imports grew 16.3 percent for a seventh monthly rise, boosted mainly by higher bills for liquefied natural gas and coal.
The ministry said that the yen was on average 9.0 percent cheaper against the US dollar in July compared to the same month the year before, making Japan’s imports costlier.
