Asia: Japan's current account slips into deficit for the first time in 17 months
Contrary to expectations, Japan recorded a deficit of more than 92 billion yen in June. This was also due to dividend payments to foreign investors.
Tokyo. Japan recorded a current account deficit of 92.3 billion yen ($584.51 million) in June, the first shortfall in 17 months, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.
Analysts had forecast a 1.51 trillion yen surplus, following a 1.28 trillion yen surplus in the same month a year earlier.
The primary income surplus, which includes earnings on securities and direct investment and normally provides the biggest boost to Japan's current account surplus, shrank 74 percent to 380 billion yen.
The decline was due to higher dividend payments by Japanese firms to foreign investors.
Rising oil import costs also resulted in a trade deficit that pushed the current account into the red.
However, in the first half of the year, Japan's current account surplus rose 22.5 percent to a record 17.4 trillion yen.
This was driven by a trade surplus, helped by strong exports of semiconductors for AI data centers.
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
