Japan posts biggest trade deficit in more than 8 years for May
The growing trade deficit underscores the headwinds the world's third-largest economy faces from a slide in the yen and surging costs of fuel and raw materials, on which domestic manufacturers rely for production.
Imports soared 48.9% in the year to May, Ministry of Finance data showed on Thursday, above a median market forecast for a 43.6% gain in a Reuters poll.
That outpaced a 15.8% year-on-year rise in exports in the same month, resulting in a 2.385 trillion yen ($17.80 billion) trade deficit, the largest shortfall in a single month since January 2014.
May's deficit, which was the second largest in a single month on record, marked the 10th straight month of year-on-year shortfalls and was bigger than the 2.023 trillion yen gap expected in a Reuters poll.
By region, exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, shrank 0.2% in the 12 months to May on weaker shipments of machinery and transport equipment to the country. ...continue reading

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