Japan's current account surplus rose 33.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 1.497 trillion yen, marking a fifth straight month of expansion, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday in a preliminary report.
The increase underscored a continued decline in overseas tourism following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome last year. It also came after a drop in imports outpaced a decrease in exports in the reporting month.
The current account balance -- the broadest gauge of trade in goods and services -- is calculated by determining the difference between income from foreign sources and payments on foreign obligations, excluding net capital investment.
The balance of trade in goods and services registered a surplus of 884.7 billion yen, up 32.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the report.
The surplus in merchandise trade rose 9.4 percent to 1.157 trillion yen. Exports in November fell 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 4.333 trillion yen, while imports dropped 5.4 percent to 3.176 trillion yen.
Although exports to the rest of Asia rose in the reporting month, those to both the European Union and the United States fell.
Imports from the EU and Asia increased, while those from the U.S. fell.
Japan's chronic deficit in the balance of services trade shrank 29.8 percent to 272 billion yen. This was due to an 8.7 percent drop in the number of Japanese traveling overseas compared with the same month a year earlier.
Overseas travel has been on the decline since March due to the Iraq war as well as the outbreak of SARS, whose impact "has not gone away yet," a ministry official said.
The income account, which includes income from Japanese investment in foreign securities, registered a surplus of 666.9 billion yen in November, expanding 27.2 percent from a year earlier.