Japan's economy is still split down the middle with exports shooting up but shoppers at home refusing to spend, the latest figures show.

Numbers released on Thursday morning show that the current account surplus - the measure of how much exports exceed imports - was up 58.1% in July over the previous year's reading.

The data marked the tenth straight month of year-on-year gains, the Finance Ministry said.

A day earlier, overall economic growth in the April-June quarter was confirmed at 0.6%, the first expansion since March 2001.

Weak signals

Still, the return to expansion cannot disguise the weakness at the heart of the Japanese economy.

Strong demand from Asian neighbours is helping to offset the new weakness of the dollar - which risks making Japanese goods too expensive in the US - leaving exports 8.9% higher than a year earlier.

But a profit warning from electronics giant Hitachi on Wednesday sparked renewed fears that the export boom which is keeping Japan Inc afloat could be tailing away.

And domestic demand shows no signs of picking up. Consumers remain unwilling to spend while deflation means goods will probably keep getting cheaper and cheaper, and that means both domestic sales and imports are on a low flame, down 0.2%.