Japan's current account surplus in fiscal 2013 was the smallest since comparable data became available in fiscal 1985, as soaring fossil fuel imports drove up the nation's trade deficit amid the prolonged halt of nuclear power plants, government data showed Monday.
A record goods trade deficit of ¥10.8 trillion brought the country's annual current account surplus — one of the widest gauges of international trade — to ¥789.9 billion in the last business year, down 81.3 percent from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
The current account surplus shrank for the third straight year, after the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters hit parts of the Tohoku region and triggered an emergency at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the ministry said.