Japan Current-Account Surplus Rises First Time in 18 Months
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Japan’s current-account surplus widened from a year earlier for the first time in 18 months, as lower prices of imported energy helped to offset gains in the yen and a global slowdown that has capped exports.
The excess in the broadest measure of the nation’s trade was 454.7 billion yen ($5.8 billion) in August, compared with a 436.3 billion yen surplus a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo today. The median estimate of 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a surplus of 421.1 billion yen. In July, the surplus was 625.4 billion yen.