Japan's exports continue to recover from the slump caused by the corona crisis, but are still well below the levels of the previous year.
In august, they fell by 14.8 percent compared with the previous year to 5.2 billion yen (42 billion euros), the japanese finance ministry announced in tokyo on wednesday. This is the smallest decline since march and also somewhat less than experts had expected. The sharpest decline was in may, when exports fell by 28 percent to 4.2 billion yen.
In august, export companies benefited above all from the economic recovery in china, the most important trading partner of the country, which is heavily dependent on exports. The volume of exports to china increased by 5.1 percent year-on-year to just under 1.3 billion yen. China's economy was the first major economy to suffer from the consequences of the corona pandemic, particularly at the beginning of the year, but the situation there has recently improved again.
Japan's exports to the united states, on the other hand, continued to decline sharply. Here, the volume fell by just over one fifth to 937 billion yen. The USA is wrestling not only with the corona consequences, but also with the recent weakness of the dollar. As a result, export companies such as sony or toyota receive less on their own balance sheets at the same local selling prices.
Imports continue to develop very weakly. In august, these fell by 20.8 percent compared with the previous year to just under five billion yen. The decline was only slightly less than in july, when they fell by 22.3 percent. Economists had also expected a somewhat smaller decline. Imports give an indication of the strength of domestic consumption.
The trade balance surplus in august was 248 billion yen.