Japan's surplus in the broadest measure of foreign trade rose 14 percent in October from a year earlier to 865.1 billion yen, marking its second consecutive month of increase, the Finance Ministry said Thursday in a preliminary current account report.

The ministry attributed the increase to a greater income account surplus covering income from direct investment in foreign countries, and returns from investment in foreign securities. It was also partly attributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, which helped narrow services trade deficits by discouraging Japanese from traveling overseas.

It is difficult to predict the future trend of the current account balance, a ministry official said, because it is influenced by economic conditions such as the timing of a recovery in the world economy as well as in Japan.