Japan's current account surplus more than halved to an eight-year low of ¥4.85 trillion ($33 billion) in the first half of fiscal 2022, weighed down by a record trade deficit caused by soaring imports and the yen's sharp decline, Finance Ministry data showed Wednesday.
The current account surplus fell to a level last seen in 2014, when rising oil prices tipped Japan's trade balance into the red, according to the ministry's preliminary data.
The data shows the surplus in the April-September period fell by ¥6.86 trillion from a year earlier — the biggest year-on-year decline since the second half of fiscal 2008, during the global financial crisis, and the second-largest since comparable data became available in 1985. The sharp decline underscores the vulnerability of the resource-poor nation, which relies heavily on imports.