LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) --
Japan's current-account surplus widened to 303.5 billion
yen ($3.95 billion) in December, while the merchandise trade account saw its
first annual deficit in almost half a century. The current-account surplus was up from ¥138.5 billion in November but much narrower than the year-earlier's ¥1.198 trillion, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday. The surplus printed below the median expectation for ¥331.4 billion according to a
Dow Jones Newswires survey. The trade account remained in deficit, with a ¥145.8 billion trade
gap, narrowing from November's ¥585.1 billion deficit. Exports for December were down 7%, as imports rose 9.8%. For all of 2011, the trade account saw a deficitof ¥1.609 trillion. It was the first merchandise trade deficit since 1963, CNBC reported.Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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