Japan's current account surplus drops 50 pct to 8-year low in 2022

TOKYO, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan's current account surplus logged in 2022 was almost 50 percent lower than the previous year, marking its lowest level in eight years, owing to a record trade deficit due to an upsurge in imports and the yen's weakness, the government said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the finance ministry, the current account in 2022 stood at 11.44 trillion yen (87.26 billion U.S. dollars), with a record contraction year on year, resulting from surging import costs coming despite the primary income logging a record surplus.

The country's trade deficit totaled 15.78 trillion (120.36 billion dollars), with imports climbing 42 percent to 114.47 trillion yen (873.12 trillion dollars) and exports up 19.9 percent to 98.69 trillion yen (752.74 billion dollars), the ministry said, adding that the value of both was the largest since record-keeping began.

In December alone, Japan logged a current account surplus of 33.4 billion yen (254.74 million dollars), a record low for the month, dropping 90.9 percent from a year earlier, the ministry's data showed.

With imports outpacing exports, the trade deficit rose three-fold to 1.23 trillion yen (9.38 billion dollars), with the primary income totaling a record for December at 1.80 trillion yen (13.72 billion dollars), the ministry said.

Japan's current account surplus is one of the broadest measures of its trade with the rest of the world.

The data is keenly eyed by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the finance ministry ahead of new potential policy changes or monetary easing or tapering measures.

In Japan, the current account surplus increases the nation's net foreign assets by the corresponding amount, and a current account deficit does the reverse.

Both the Japanese government and private payments are included in the calculation and it is called the current account because goods and services are generally consumed in the current period.