Japan's trade deficit narrows in November but exports remain weak

Tokyo

JAPAN suffered a 380 billion yen (S$4.4 billion) trade deficit in November as exports to China and other parts of Asia declined in line with the broadening economic slowdown in the region, preliminary data released by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday showed.

The plunge into deficit last month (compared with November 2014) from a 108 billion trade surplus in October came despite the fact that Japan's imports were much lower in November than a year earlier.

The latest deficit was much smaller than the 899 billion yen deficit in Nove…