- Swissquote Bank
Japan posted a 20th current-account surplus in a row, helping an economy that has been struggling to recover from a contraction in the final quarter of 2015. Japan's broadest measure of trade with the rest of the world grew more than four-fold to 2.43 trillion yen in February, according to the Ministry of Finance. Export receipts increased from 5.35 trillion yen in January to 5.64 trillion yen in February, while import payments declined from 5.77 trillion yen to 5.22 trillion yen. A combination of cheap energy imports, higher income from investments abroad by Japanese companies and an influx of foreign tourists have all contributed to the surplus.
A recent strength on the Yen, which has gained about 11% this year threatens to erode some of the benefits exporters have received from the currency, and make Japan more expensive for tourists from abroad. The Yen's strength has fuelled speculation that policy makers will intervene in currency markets to bring the currency back down, yet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ruled out such a move. However, the BoJ has other tools on hand to help bring the currency down, including expansion of the Qualitative and Quantitative Easing programme and cutting interest rates further into negative territory
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