Japan's current account surplus shrank by 37 percent year-on-year to 7,856.4 billion yen (80.17 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of fiscal 2008, marking the first decrease in the April-September period, the finance ministry said Tuesday.
A record high of imports is one key factor behind the plunge in the current account surplus, according to the ministry.
In the first half of fiscal 2008 starting April, the surplus in the balance of trade in goods and services tumbled to 492.4 billion yen, down by 89.8 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said in a preliminary report.
The surplus in merchandise trade logged a second consecutive half-year decline, plummeting 74.8 percent to 1,588.1 billion yen.
In September alone, the world's second largest economy's current account surplus narrowed 48.8 percent year-on-year to 1,497.9 billion yen, as imports of natural resources, including crude oil, far outpaced exports.
The current account balance, the broadest gauge of trade in goods, services, tourism and investment, is calculated by determining the difference between a nation's income from foreign sources and payments on foreign obligations, excluding net capital investment.
Source: Xinhua
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