Japan's December current account surplus hits 187.2b yen

[TOKYO] Japan's current account logged a surplus for a sixth straight month in December, Ministry of Finance data showed on Monday, helped by income from overseas investments and a narrowing trade gap due to a weak yen and lower oil prices.

The surplus stood at 187.2 billion yen (S$2.17 billion), against the median estimate of 358.0 billion yen in a Reuters poll of economists. It followed a surplus of 433.0 billion yen in November.

In 2014, Japan's current account surplus fell 18.8 per cent to 2.6266 trillion yen, shrinking for a fourth straight year, reflecting bulging trade deficits. This was the smallest surplus in comparable data available from 1985.

REUTERS