Japan said Wednesday its trade surplus in February shrank for a second consecutive month as rising oil prices continued to boost imports and Asian exports, a key driver for economic growth, stalled. The data came as the world's second-largest economy is struggling to cling to growth in the first three months of the year after a mild recession in the middle of 2004. Exports are struggling to recover while consumer spending, backed by an improving job market, has not yet emerged strongly enough to take the lead in getting the economy back on a steady growth track.
Japan's trade surplus dropped 21.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.09 trillion yen (10.5 billion dollars) in February, well below the consensus forecast of 1.33 trillion yen.
Exports in February grew only 1.7 percent to 4.85 trillion yen while imports jumped 11.3 percent to 3.75 trillion yen, the finance ministry said.
"Exports were virtually flat while imports rose sharply mainly due to high oil prices and strong demand for steel and coal products," a finance ministry official said.
Japanese exports are expected to continue to falter in the near term as growth in global information technology demand is now slowing, Daiwa Institute of Research senior economist Junichi Makino said.
"Japan's trade surplus, which had bolstered economic growth early in 2004, is most likely to see a continued contraction in the near term," he said.
On the import front, steel jumped 77.5 percent from a year earlier to 61.8 billion yen and coal rose 41.3 percent to 91.6 billion yen, while crude oil increased 20.4 percent to 515.1 billion yen. Apart from soaring commodity prices, analysts said the trade surplus fell as Japan's exports to Asia, which account for nearly 50 percent of total shipments, rose just 0.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.25 trillion yen.
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