 Exporters are doing well, but imports are growing faster |
Exports from Japan hit their highest level for more than 50 years last month, but high oil prices could still spell economic slowdown, analysts said. Japan's exports rose 12.5% on 2003 to 5.46 trillion yen ($50.6bn; �27.9bn), a high since records began in 1947.
But an oil-fuelled rise in imports meant the boost to the trade surplus was smaller than expected.
Japan's economy minister said this week that oil prices were the biggest threat to economic growth.
Although the September exports figure showed strong growth over the same month in the previous year, it was down slightly on August when seasonally adjusted.
The same pattern could be found in the trade surplus, the amount by which exports exceed imports.
September produced a surplus of 1.24 trillion yen, up 12.7% in comparison with 2003.
But that figure was 21.8% lower than August's surplus.
The decline, said Shuji Shirota at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Tokyo, suggested "signs of peaking out - mostly due to a slowdown in overseas economies and rising crude oil prices".
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