The current account surplus in 2019 grew 4.4 percent to ¥20.06 trillion ($183 billion) from the previous year, helped by the first-ever black ink in services trade on increased consumption by foreign tourists, government data showed Monday.
The surplus in the current account, one of the widest gauges of international trade, marked the first rise in two years in 2019, although the goods trade surplus shrank for the third year in a row amid lackluster exports due to a slowdown in the Chinese economy, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
In services trade, which includes cargo shipping and passenger transportation, a ¥175.8 billion surplus was posted in 2019, with the account moving into the black for the first time since the ministry began compiling annual statistics in 1996. In 2018, Japan saw an ¥806.2 billion services trade deficit.