Japan's current account surplus shrinks, US retail sales up

Japan's current account surplus shrank in November for the first time in 17 months, its finance ministry said yesterday.

The merchandise trade surplus fell 35.2 percent to 753.2 billion yen as imports jumped 31.2 percent to 4.16 trillion yen while exports rose only 13.4 percent to 4.92 trillion yen. High oil prices was a major factor in the rise in imports. Crude oil imports jumped 54.4 percent to 202.6 billion yen from a year earlier while refined oil products rose 70.6 percent to 53 billion yen.

The capital and financial account posted an outflow from Japan of 1.41 trillion yen in November, against an inflow of 692.6 billion yen a year earlier. Japan's deficit in the services account widened by 6.0 percent to 296.4 billion yen.

Meanwhile, in the US, retail sales jumped a larger-than-expected 1.2 percent in December, according to the US Commerce Department. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.3 percent. In November, sales had risen 0.1 percent, while sales excluding autos had been up a revised 0.4 percent. For all of 2004, retail sales rose 8.0 percent from the year before, the biggest gain since 1999.

In other news yesterday, the Labor Department reported that the number of first-time claims for jobless benefits by Americans grew last week to 367,000, the highest since late September. However, the number of those continuing to file claims fell to their lowest level since mid-2001.

A separate Labor Department report showed that the price of goods imported into the United States fell by 1.3 percent in December, mainly due to a steep fall in the price of petroleum products.