Tokyo: Japan posted its first trade surplus in nearly three years in March as import bills fell owing to tumbling oil prices while the value of exports to North America soared, data showed Wednesday.
Japan`s overall exports rose 8.5 percent while imports fell 14.5 percent, leaving a surplus of 229.3 billion yen ($1.9 billion), the first time its trade balance has been in the black since June 2012, the finance ministry said.
The upbeat data come after a string of weak figures raised doubts about the health of the world`s number three economy, and as Tokyo and Washington emerged on Tuesday from marathon talks on a Pacific-wide free trade area saying they were within reach of a deal.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is hoping that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- which includes a dozen nations accounting for about 40 percent of the global economy -- will help him push through reforms to the protected agricultural sector, a key element in a wider bid to stimulate growth.
Wednesday`s trade data underscore how Japan has seen its whopping energy import bills decline in line with a dramatic slump in world oil prices.
But Japan`s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports remained high, with utilities forced into thermal power generation due to the country`s entire fleet of nuclear reactors still being offline, more than four years after the disaster at Fukushima, the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986.
A weak yen has supported Japan`s export sector, with the value of shipments to North America jumping 22.1 percent last month, while goods bound for the European Union climbed 9.1 percent and exports to China edged up 3.9 percent -- reversing a drop a month earlier.
