Japan's current account surplus fell 28.2 percent from a year earlier to 775.6 billion yen in July, down for the eighth straight month, the Finance Ministry said Thursday in a preliminary report.
A ministry official said the shrinking surplus in the broadest measure of trade involves three factors: the ongoing global economic slowdown, a comparative depreciation of the yen to the dollar and an intensifying transfer of the production divisions of Japanese manufacturers to other parts of Asia.
It is difficult, however, to determine the future direction of the current account surplus because the prospects of major economies are unclear, the official said.