Japan's trade surplus shrank in February from a year earlier for the second month in a row as exports to crucial markets such as China weakened, casting doubts over whether the economy was safely out of recession.
The surplus fell 21.7 per cent from the same month a year earlier to 1.093 trillion yen, government data showed today, lower than a median market forecast of 1.35 trillion yen, or a 3.3 per cent fall.
Much of the decline, which followed a year-on-year slide of around 60 per cent in January, was due to a surge in oil prices that pushed up the overall value of imports, but economists said the tepid growth in exports was the main concern.
"What's worrying is that exports, on a volume basis, are down from year-ago levels, notably those bound for Asia," said Mr Seiji Adachi, senior economist at Deutsche Securities.
In value terms, exports rose 1.7 per cent year-on-year in February, led by automobile exports and steel exports, but dramatically less than the double-digit gains seen last year.
Month-on-month, exports fell 5.0 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis while the surplus rose 7.7 per cent. In volume terms, exports fell 4.2 per cent year-on-year, led by a 6.7 per cent drop to Europe and a 3.6 per cent fall to Asia.
Most worrying of all was a year-on-year fall in exports to China by 2.2 per cent, the first fall since December 2001, although some economists said this may have been affected by the Lunar New Year falling in February. Exports to the United States rose 6.4 per cent.