TOKYO (MNI) – Japan is expected to have posted a trade deficit of
Y696.1 billion in April and a 12.4% year-on-year drop in exports after
the March 11 earthquake disaster wrecked supply chains for automobiles
and electronics, according to the median forecasts by economists
surveyed by Market News International.
The Ministry of Finance will release the data at 0850 JST on
Wednesday, May 25 (2350 GMT Tuesday).
Following a small trade surplus of Y189.4 trillion in March, a
deficit of Y696.1 billion in April would be the first red ink since
January, when shipments to China slowed ahead of the Lunar New Year
holidays in early February.
Before that Japan last marked a trade deficit in March 2009, hit by
the global recession triggered by the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.
MOF data released earlier showed that in the first 20 days of
April, Japanese exports fell 12.7% from a year earlier to Y3.128
trillion while imports rose 14.2% to Y3.915 trillion. The trade balance
in the period resulted in a deficit worth Y786.8 billion.
Exports in March already posted the first y/y drop in 16 months by
a revised 2.3%. A 12.4% drop in April, as projected by economists, would
be the largest fall since -23.2% in October 2009
Automobiles, semiconductors and auto parts contributed to the drop
in exports while imports were pushed up by refined petroleum products,
liquefied natural gas and non-ferrous metal products.
Economists forecast that imports rose 12.9% y/y in April, a 16th
straight y/y rise, after rising an unrevised 11.9% in March.
Commodity prices are on an uptrend while Japan has been forced to
depend more on LNG to generate power since the March disaster knocked
out the cooling systems for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
the key source of electricity supply to Tokyo and its neighbouring
cities.
skodama@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4838 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$]
