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"Japan's trade balance will be stuck in the red at least until fiscal 2015"
- Yuichiro Nagai, an economist at Barclays Plc
On Tuesday, a report showed that a gauge, which measures a change in the total value of goods and services purchased by Japanese businesses, fell in March, despite the economy is reviving from the last year's recession. According to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry report its All Industries Activity Index tumbled to a seasonally adjusted -0.3%, down from 0.6% in the prior month, meeting analysts' expectations.
In the meantime, Japan recorded 10th straight month of trade deficit of 879.936 billion yen in April, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday, highlighting faltering global demand that may put pressure on efforts to revive the Japanese economy. The headline figure was against expectations of 620.6 billion yen following the downwardly revised deficit of 364.0 billion yen in March. Overseas shipments increased 3.8% from the previous year, missing economists' estimates of 5.4%.
"Exports didn't regain as much momentum as we expected, even with a weakening yen," Yuichiro Nagai, an economist at Barclays Plc in Tokyo said. "Japan's trade balance will be stuck in the red at least until fiscal 2015."