Shipping container loads dock at Tokyo Bay.
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Japan’s exports in October massively beat expectations, government data on Friday showed, as shipments to Europe and Asia saw robust growth.
Exports grew 3.6% year on year compared with expectations of a 1.1% growth by economists polled by Reuters.
However, growth was lower than the 4.2% gain seen in September.
Exports to Asia climbed 4.2% and shipments to Western Europe surged 8.8% year on year, helping offset the 2.7% decline to North America as goods shipped to the U.S. fell 3.1%.
Automobile shipments, the largest Japanese exports to the U.S. by value, fell 7.5% compared to the same period before, but softer than the 24.2% decline seen in the prior month.
The data comes at a time when Japan is locked in a diplomatic spat with its largest trading partner, China, over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments related to Taiwan.
The impact on trade from this spat could show up in next month’s data.
The Asia Group said in a note on Wednesday that mainland China had suspended imports of seafood from Japan. It also pointed to Chinese social media showing some Japanese brand stores in Shanghai and Beijing “voluntarily” closing for several days citing “reasons that everyone know.”
Meanwhile, imports to the world’s fourth largest economy unexpectedly rose 0.7%, defying expectations of a 0.7% fall from the Reuters poll.
Stronger-than-expected exports data would come as a welcome relief for Japan’s economy that struggled in the third quarter. The country’s GDP contracted 0.4% quarter on quarter, with net exports dragging the quarterly figure down by 0.2 percentage point.
Japan also released it consumer inflation data on Friday, with headline inflation now running above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for 43 months in a row.
The Nikkei 225 was 2.38% down after the data release, while the Japanese yen rose marginally to trade at 157.39 against the dollar. Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama signaled the possibility of intervening in the market, saying that she was “alarmed by recent one-sided, sharp moves in the currency market,” Reuters reported.
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