Japan suffers record trade deficit

A rebound in Japan’s exports in January failed to keep pace with growth in imports, leaving a record 1.63 trillion yen (€12.9bn) trade deficit for the month.

The provisional data released this morning shows exports for the world’s third-biggest economy rose 6.4% to 4.8 trillion yen (€38bn) in January from a year earlier, the first year-on-year increase in eight months, while imports jumped 7.3% to 6.43 trillion yen (€51bn).