Japan's trade surplus in May came to ¥299.84 billion, its highest level in a year, as the pace of decline in exports slowed and imports fell sharply, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
It was the fourth straight monthly surplus, following a record deficit in January when the deepening impact of the global crisis sapped demand for exports. The size of the surplus was down 12.1 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said in a preliminary report.
The latest data aren't encouraging. Both exports and imports slipped several percentage points from April, even though many top government officials have recently claimed the worst part of the recession came to an end in the January-March quarter.