"Doing Well" Japan's Record High Current Account Surplus in Gyeongsang... Impact of Falling Raw Material Prices and More

Trade Surplus of 110 Trillion Won from April to September
September Surplus of 23.7 Trillion Won Marks 8 Consecutive Months of Surplus

Japan's Ministry of Finance announced on the 9th that the current account surplus for the first half of this fiscal year (April to September) reached 12.7064 trillion yen (approximately 110.5 trillion won), tripling the amount from the same period last year.

According to Kyodo News and Yomiuri Shimbun, the size of Japan's current account surplus in the first half of this year is the largest semi-annual figure since comparable records began in 1985. The previous record was 12.4816 trillion yen (approximately 108.5 trillion won) in the first half of 2007.

Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan

Yomiuri analyzed that the decline in raw material prices reduced the trade deficit in goods, and the increase in tourists visiting Japan also had an impact.

The trade deficit in goods also decreased significantly, down to 1.4052 trillion yen from 9.1814 trillion yen in the same period last year. The travel account surplus also expanded to 1.6497 trillion yen, about 15 times that of the previous year, reducing the deficit in the services account as well.

In September alone, the current account surplus was 2.7236 trillion yen, 3.6 times higher than the same month last year. This marks eight consecutive months of surplus since February this year. This is also attributed to the reduced trade deficit in goods, the weak yen, and favorable travel account trends.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.