Japanese exports expanded for a fifth consecutive month in April, with shipments to China surging as global demand continued to support the nation’s economic recovery.
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- Exports rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier (median estimate +8.0 percent), according to data released by the Ministry of Finance.
- Imports jumped 15.1 percent (median estimate +14.8 percent).
- The trade surplus was 481.7 billion yen ($4.3 billion) (estimate 520.7 billion yen).
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Key Takeaways
Exports have driven five consecutive quarters of growth in Japan’s economy, the longest run in a decade. Imports have also picked up, notching the biggest gain in more than three years in March. The swell in trade indicates an increasingly healthy global economy. The outlook for global trade remains unclear, though, after Group of Seven finance chiefs agreed only on watered-down language about avoiding protectionism at their May meeting in Italy.
Economist Views
- “When the global economy is going strong, exports to China grow,” said Yasutoshi Nagai, chief economist at Daiwa Securities Co. in Tokyo. “That picture remains the same.”
- Yet any slowdown in exports would threaten the sustainability of Japan’s recovery, Nagai said. “Exports are the only part of the Japanese economy on a firm footing.”
- With external demand growing strongly, export volumes should lift aggregate growth in Japan’s gross domestic product by another 0.5 percentage point this year, Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics in Singapore, wrote in a research note.
Other Details
- Exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, climbed 14.8 percent to a record high for the month of April of 1.19 trillion yen.
- Exports to the U.S. rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier.
- Shipments to the EU increased 2.2 percent.
