-Yuichiro Nagai, an economist at Barclays Securities Japan
Japan logged 12 consecutive monthly balance of payments increases in June, bringing the half-year surplus to the highest level in five years as foreign income and tourism receipts rose. Japan's current account surplus stood at 558.6 billion yen, compared with economists' forecasts for a 773.6 billion yen. In the first half of this year, the nation's current account surplus stood at 8.18 trillion yen, the largest since July-December in 2010, as lower crude oil prices pushed down imports, while income rose on the back of a weaker Yen. The surplus contrasted with a deficit of 497.7 billion yen a year ago that largely resulted from surging imports of liquefied natural gas and crude oil after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 prompted nuclear power plants to be shut down.
Meanwhile, a separate report showed the outlook Japan's services sector workers deteriorated to the lowest level in six months in July, amid concerns over higher import costs and volatile weather patterns. However, the current sentiment improved for the first time in three months. The sentiment index for Japan's current economic climate rose to 51.6 in July, up from 51.0 in June. The so-called Watchers' outlook index - a sub-component measuring sentiment over the next two to three months - slid to a six-month low of 51.9 last month from 53.5 in June, falling for the second consecutive month.
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