Japan's trade surplus doubles in August
Staff and wires
TOKYO, Japan -- Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus more than doubled in August from a year ago, new figures showed Wednesday.
The Ministry of Finance said the August trade surplus for the world's second-largest economy rose 107.9 percent from a year earlier to 644.146 billion yen ($5.22 billion).
This was about 25 percent above a median forecast of 500 billion yen by economists polled by Reuters last week.
Exports were up 6.2 percent from a year earlier at 4.068 trillion yen while imports were down 2.7 percent at 3.424 trillion yen.
Seasonally adjusted, exports in August were 0.6 percent lower than the figure for July, while imports were down 7.7 percent. The month-on-month trade surplus was 37.5 percent higher.
Reuters contributed to this report.
