Japan’s exports fall the most since 2011 quake

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan’s exports fell the most since the aftermath of last year’s earthquake as a global slowdown, the yen’s strength and a dispute with China increase the odds of a contraction in the world’s third-largest economy, Bloomberg reports.

Shipments slid 10.3 percent in September from a year earlier, leaving a trade deficit of 558.6 billion yen ($7 billion), the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo Sunday, Oct 21.

Economy Minister Seiji Maehara pressed the Bank of Japan for more action, saying the nation is “falling behind” in monetary stimulus and faces the threat of another credit-rating downgrade.

Taiwan reported today that unemployment rose to a one-year high, underscoring weakness across Asia after China’s third-quarter growth was the slowest since 2009.

“There’s a high chance that Japan’s economy will have two consecutive quarters of contraction through December,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Corp. in Tokyo. “The slump in advanced nations is spreading to emerging economies.”

The decline in shipments, exacerbated by a spat with China over islands in the East China Sea, was the biggest since May last year, when the country was rebuilding supply chains wrecked in the March earthquake and tsunami.

Shipments to China, the nation’s largest export market, slid 14.1 percent from a year earlier. Exports to the European Union fell 21.1 percent, while those to the U.S. rose 0.9 percent. Auto shipments to all markets dropped 14.6 percent.

In a speech in Tokyo, BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa vowed to conduct “seamless” monetary easing as he said the Japanese economy is “leveling off.”