Japan's current account surplus shrank 8.9 percent in the first half from a year earlier to 8.752 trillion yen, marking a first decline in four half-year periods, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
The fall was linked to an ongoing surge in oil prices, which inflated the value of imports, and to an export slowdown stemming from a period of global inventory and production adjustment in the information technology sector, the ministry said.
Yet the surplus was the third-biggest on a half-year basis, highlighting Japan's brisk trade with the rest of the world, especially with other Asian economies, it said.