Feb 08 (NHK) - A sharp improvement in Japan's trade balance saw the current account surplus more than double in December from a year ago. But the numbers show that the coronavirus continues to weigh on travel.
The Finance Ministry says the measure of trade and investment with other countries reached 1.17 trillion yen for December, or about 11 billion dollars.
The black ink rose year-on-year for the fourth-straight month.
The trade surplus reached 965.1 billion yen or 9.1 billion dollars, which is more than a 13-fold increase in yen terms from the year before. Imports fell due to lower crude oil prices, while exports rose on robust demand from China.
The travel account logged a surplus of 28.7 billion yen or about 272 million dollars. But that was down almost 88 percent in yen terms as the pandemic put a major dent in the number of foreign visitors.
The primary income account had a surplus of 649.2 billion yen or 6.1 billion dollars. The figure includes dividends and interest from foreign investments.
The current account balance for all of 2020 was 17.7 trillion yen or about 168 billion dollars in the black. It shrank from a year earlier partly due to the dismal travel figures.
