Exports Plunge 25.7% From a Year Ago
JapanToday reports Japan’s Current Account Surplus Shrinks to 5-Year Low.
Japan posted its smallest current account surplus in more than five years in June, Ministry of Finance data showed on Tuesday, mainly due to a slump in exports, highlighting the heavy hit to external demand from the coronavirus pandemic.
Details
- The current account surplus was 167.5 billion yen ($1.58 billion), the smallest monthly surplus since January 2015.
- Exports plunged 25.7% in June from a year ago, hit hard by falling shipments of cars and car parts to the United States.
- Imports shed an annual 14.4%, following a 27.7% annual fall in May.
- Japan’s e trade deficit in June widened to 157.7 billion yen.
- A 99.9% drop in foreign tourists due to immigration restrictions imposed over the health crisis sent the travel account to a 157.7 billion yen deficit in June.
Japanese Exports
There is little reason to expect a sudden sharp reversal.
US Trade in Goods With Japan
The above chart from the Census Department.
As I have commented before, Trump’s best chance to reduce trade deficits with the world was not tariffs but rather to have one hell of a recession.
Congratulations?
Mish
I am amazed at just how gullible the electorate really is. Trump has managed to promulgate this trade deficit issue like nobody has before. If trade deficits are such a problem, then explain how the U.S., while running a trade deficit throughout the 19th century, became an industrial powerhouse by the turn of the century.
Trade deficits result when foreigners want to invest. Tariffs serve only to hurt the domestic economy and thus reduce the attractiveness of the investment. So, I hope this recession will least convince people of the futility of reducing trade deficits.
If Japan’s exports are down that’s china , Japan’s largest export market. Germany also exports a lot to China. Both countries are leveraged to sell machinery to China
Sechel,
I agree and it seems to me that this is overlooked. Japan and Germany are both high-value export-driven economies and increasingly vulnerable, especially with the growing tension between the US and China.
To add to the mix, China’s apparent increasing need for food imports.
At what point will financial assets reflect reality and not this engineered inflation?
US trade deficit with China thru 6 months …
… $132 billion
I’m really getting sick of all the winning at this point