Japanese deficit

-- Japan is approaching the point where it will dominate economic headlines, just as we foresaw lat April. Greece and the EU will be small potatoes in comparison but it's more helpful to see that these are not isolated systems but essential components in a globalized house of cards which is all coming down more or less simultaneously. -- MCR

Disquiet at Japan’s record current account deficit

Financial Times, 8 March, 2012

Japan’s Y437bn current account deficit in January, the biggest monthly shortfall since comparable records began in 1985, defied even the more pessimistic assessments of the world’s third-largest economy.

Following a full-year trade deficit in 2011, a first for Japan for more than two decades, fears are intensifying that the country is rapidly moving towards a lasting current-account deficit, which could lead to a reliance on foreigners buying government bonds. That, in turn, could drive up interest rates, threatening a fiscal crisis.

January’s shortfall, revealed on Thursday by the Finance Ministry, fuelled those fears, coming in more than a third wider than forecasts, as rising imports met an 8.5 per cent year-on-year fall in exports, caused in part by an early timing of Chinese New Year.

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