Japan: exports are growing and the trade balance is more balanced than a year ago
Japan is having a period of great economic vitality, with an increase in foreign trade, with imports and exports growing.
Exports from Japan increased 1.6% year-on-year to 9,147.07 billion yen in October 2023 , expanding for the second consecutive month, beating market forecasts by 1.2% and remaining near the top historic 9,199 billion yen reached in September.
Transportation shipments increased 27.5% year-on-year, led by motor vehicles (35.4%) and automobiles (40.7%), showing great vitality of Japanese auto.
The turnover of the others, however, decreased by 2.3%, due to scientific and optical instruments (-15.3%). Machinery sales also fell by 6.4%; those of electrical machinery fell by 3.8%, shaken by semiconductors (-3.3%) and electrical equipment (-12.9%).
Exports of manufactured goods decreased by 3.0%, linked to steel products (-3.1%) and non-ferrous metals (-6.0%); and chemical sales fell 7.9%.
Sales increased in the US (8.4%), Hong Kong (9.2%), India (8.3%), Australia (5.6%), UK (24.7%) and the EU ( 8.9%); while they fall towards China (-4.0%), Taiwan (-13.8%), South Korea (-8.1%), Germany (-2.5%) and Russia (-60.7%)
Here is the relevant graph:
The trade balance is negative, but much less than it was a year ago, in October 2022, when energy had led to very high negative values
The trade balance is slowly rebalancing after the energy shock of 2021-22. In September there was even a slight surplus, now the deficit is not dramatic. Moreover, exports are helped by the Yen, which has weakened significantly, as it should have done anyway
So Japan, despite all the controversies, presents itself as one of the most balanced mature economies, potentially capable of facing almost all the challenges that will arise before it. This should make European countries rethink the path they have taken.
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The article Japan: exports are growing and the trade balance is more balanced than a year ago comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/giappone-cresce-lexport-e-la-bilancia-commerciale-e-piu-equilibrata-rispetto-a-un-anno-fa/ on Thu, 16 Nov 2023 13:30:12 +0000.