GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Japan has announced its first trade deficit since 1980, Y2.49tn ($32bn), with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda saying it will take until 2014 for a turn-around. Analysts, according to the financial press, are gloomier about Japan’s short- to mid-term prospects for avoiding a current account surplus. The savings rate in the country has been falling, fuel costs have risen sharply in the past year and the trade balance has been hurt as well by a combination of the broader impact of the major earthquake at the start of 2011, floods in Thailand which have pushed down exports, and a trade deficit with China that is five times higher than in 2010.
Japan has historically had large trade surpluses.
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News story, GenevaLunch, 25 January 2012.
Filed under: News, World news
Tags: Business, earthquake, economy, finance, Jaapan, oil imports, savings, trade deficit, tsunami