The country's current account surplus for November rose 29.0% from a year earlier, up for the third straight month, on a sharp decline in imports with continued falls in energy resource prices, government data showed Tuesday.
The current account balance, one of the widest gauges of international trade, registered a surplus of ¥1.88 trillion ($18 billion), staying in the black for the 77th consecutive month, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
In the reporting month, the country's goods trade balance came to a surplus of ¥616.1 billion, up from a ¥20.0 billion deficit in the previous year, logging black ink for the fifth consecutive month.