Japan’s first annual trade deficit in 29 years |

Japan’s first annual trade deficit in 29 years

Japan suffered its first annual trade deficit in nearly three decades in the year to March, highlighting the continuing impact of the global financial crisis on the world’s second-largest economy.

However, the relentless slide in Japanese exports eased moderately last month, providing a glimmer of hope that the severe impact of the global recession may be beginning to abate.

Economists said it was too soon to call the bottom in the economic collapse that caused gross domestic product to contract by 12.1 per cent in the last three months of last year, the largest quarterly drop since 1974.

But some said the global financial shock appeared to be easing. “The stage is set for a strong rebound in industrial production and exports [in the current quarter],” said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2b60d942-2ee5-11de-b7d3-00144feabdc0.html

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