Japan May Current Account Surplus Up 58 Pct

Tokyo, July 8 (Jiji Press)--Japan's current account surplus for May shot up 58.1 pct from a year earlier to 540.7 billion yen, the Ministry of Finance said Monday. The result compared with the median forecast of a 600-billion-yen surplus among 24 economic research institutes surveyed by Jiji Press. Japan's goods and services trade deficit shrank to 862.6 billion yen from 942.6 billion yen a year before, the ministry said in preliminary balance of payments data. In goods trade, Japan ran a deficit of 906.7 billion yen, up from a deficit of 804.9 billion yen. Exports rose 9.1 pct to 5,526.9 billion yen, and imports were up 9.6 pct at 6,433.6 billion yen. The income account surplus expanded 8.6 pct to 1,522.8 billion yen. The capital and financial account ran a surplus of 639.0 billion yen against the year-before deficit of 903.7 billion yen.