TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s trade deficit surged to a record
11.47 trillion yen ($112 billion) in 2013 as the shutdown of nuclear
power plants swelled the nation’s energy import bill.
Provisional
data Monday showed that exports rose 9.5 percent to 69.8 trillion yen
($680.9 billion), while imports jumped 15 percent to 81.3 trillion yen
($793.2 billion).
Japan’s trade deficit in 2012 was 6.94 trillion
yen. The deficit has been rising as costs for imports have surged with
the weakening of the Japanese yen and increased purchases of foreign oil
and gas. Japan’s nuclear reactors have been offline for safety and
regulatory checks after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastated
the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The largest shortfall, 13.2 trillion
yen ($128.8 billion), was with the Middle East, source of the largest
share of resource-scarce Japan’s imports of oil and gas.
The
weaker yen is a mixed blessing for Japan.
It is boosting corporate
profits due to higher yen-denominated income for companies that earn a
large share of their revenues overseas.
"Our imports are affected
both by the yen’s value and also by oil prices, so we will be watching
the situation," chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Monday.
He reiterated Japan’s eagerness to buy lower-priced shale gas from North
America, pending U.S. approval of such exports.
Apart from energy
imports, Japanese manufacturers increasingly are relying on overseas
sources for components for electronics and other products. The recovery
in exports so far has failed to offset those costs and Japanese
consumers are paying sharply higher prices for fuel and food.
Japan’s
deficit with China, its biggest trading partner, rose more than 43
percent in 2013 to 5.02 trillion yen ($49 billion). With the U.S., it
logged a surplus of 6.1 trillion yen ($59.5 billion), up nearly 20
percent from a year earlier.
December’s deficit was 1.3 trillion yen ($12.7 billion), the fourth straight month of increase.
Japan’s
economy emerged from recession a year ago and has been gaining
momentum, spurred by strong government spending and monetary stimulus.
That has also pushed demand for imports higher, a trend likely to
continue at least until a 3 percentage point increase in consumption tax
to 8 percent takes effect in April, said Marcel Thieliant, an economist
for Capital Economics in Singapore.
So far, most of the increase in exports has come from the yen’s weakening rather than an increase in
export volumes, he said.
"On
the one hand, we expect the yen to weaken further, which should keep
the cost of imports elevated. On the other hand, export volumes are
likely to pick up as global growth is accelerating," he said in a
commentary.
The worse-than-expected trade data coincided with a
flurry of selling on Tokyo’s stock exchange, where the benchmark Nikkei
225 fell below 15,000 for the first time in two months following last
week’s selloffs in Europe and the U.S. The index closed down 2.8 percent
at 15,005.73.
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