Japan's current account surplus was the smallest in 2014 since comparable data became available in 1985, with the trade deficit swelling due mainly to a surge in gas imports and the yen's drop, Japanese government data showed Monday.
The current account surplus, one of the widest gauges of international trade, fell 18.8 percent from a year earlier to 2.63 trillion yen ($22.11 billion) last year, with goods trade marking a record deficit of 10.37 trillion yen, the Japanese Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
The current account surplus shrank for the fourth straight year as demand for natural resources grew from utilities bolstering fossil fuel-based power generation as an alternative to stalled nuclear reactors following the March 2011 Fukushima crisis, Japanese News Agency (Kyodo) reported.