AFP, TOKYO: Japan logged its first trade deficit in five months in January, official data showed yesterday, as higher energy prices overwhelmed slower growth in exports due to the lunar new year.
The country routinely falls into deficit in January due to the lunar new year celebrations in key trade partners such as China, which sees an extended holiday.
But Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co in Tokyo, said that the export weakness would not last.
“Exports are still on the recovery track,” he told Bloomberg News. “The global economy is steadily recovering.
“There’s no change to the view that Japan’s economy is driven by external demand while domestic demand is remaining weak.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to kickstart growth for more than four years with a policy of spending, central bank policy easing and structural reform, but the outcome has been mostly disappointing.
|
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.