Gaining for the fifth straight month, exports totaled 7.36 trillion yen (67 billion U.S. dollars), lifted by strong shipments of cars and auto parts to the United States as well as semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to Asian nations including China, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
The year-on-year increase exceeded 30 percent for the fourth month in a row after a 48.6 percent expansion in June, partly reacting to a 19.2 percent fall in July a year earlier when the pandemic drove down global demand for products made in Japan such as cars.
July's exports surpassed the pre-pandemic level two years ago, climbing 10.7 percent from 6.64 trillion yen in July 2019.
Imports surged 28.5 percent to 6.92 trillion yen, remaining growing for the sixth successive month, on rising prices for crude oil imports from the United Arab Emirates and other countries along with brisk purchase of iron ore mainly from Australia.
The goods trade surplus reached 441.02 billion yen, making sure black ink for the second consecutive month and turning positive from the deficit of 14.76 billion yen in the earlier year.
All figures were compiled on a customs-cleared basis.
The solid recovery in exports has helped the Japanese economy emerge from its record annualized contraction of a real 28.2 percent in the April-June period a year earlier from the previous quarter caused by the pandemic.
In the April-June period this year, the economy went up an annualized real 1.3 percent from the previous quarter for the first growth in two quarters, the Cabinet Office said Monday. (1 U.S. dollar equals 109.64 yen)
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