"It will be three-to-six months before we see a substantial pick up in exports"
- Takahiro Sekido, a strategist in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.
Japan posted its smallest annual current account surplus since 1985, due to a slump in exports to China and the Eurozone, according to the Ministry of Finance. The broadest measure of Japan's trade with the rest of the world was 264.1 billion yen ($2.8 billion) in December, while for the overall 2012, trade surplus stood at 4.7 trillion yen ($50 billion), the smallest annual surplus since comparable data were made available in 1985. Weak global demand, tensions with China and increased energy imports are adding to signs that Shinzo Abe will soon announce another round of the quantitative easing in order to revive growth and end decades of deflation in the world's third largest economy.
"It will be three-to-six months before we see a substantial pick up in exports," Takahiro Sekido, a strategist in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. who formerly worked at the Bank of Japan, said before the report. "The current-account position provides another incentive for Abe to continue his campaign."
"While the yen's recent weakening will help exports to recover somewhat, the same yen weakness will push up costs for imported goods and materials," Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, told Dow Jones Newswires.
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