Japan posted a goods trade surplus of ¥152.51 billion ($1.30 billion) in November after imports fell more than exports on cheaper crude oil prices and the yen's strength, the government said in a preliminary report Monday.
A breakdown of the third consecutive monthly surplus shows that the value of exports fell 0.4 percent from a year earlier to ¥5.96 trillion, for 14th straight month of decline, while imports sank 8.8 percent to ¥5.80 trillion, down for the 23rd consecutive month, the Finance Ministry said.
Thanks to growth in auto parts exports to China, overall exports marked their smallest drop in 14 mouths, but drops in imports of medicine, crude oil and liquefied natural gas weighed down imports overall, the data showed. The value of crude oil imports plunged 14.4 percent from a year earlier.