Japan's May Current Account Surplus Narrowed

Japan's current account surplus was 215.1 billion yen in May. It narrowed 62.6% from a year earlier and was much smaller than economists expectation of 511 billion yen. The trade and service balance posted a deficit of 941 billion yen (yes, Japan's trade balance has been in deficit since 2011) as the result of increased LNG imports and decreased exports to Europe. Income surplus, though fell by 11.7% to 1, 274 billion yen, still more than offsets trade balance deficit.