Japan marks biggest trade deficit in fiscal 2011

Japan marked its biggest ever trade deficit of 4.41 trillion yen in fiscal 2011 through March, as the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March last year, the yen's strength and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis weighed on exports, the Finance Ministry said Thursday. The value of exports declined 3.7% from the previous year to 65.28 trillion yen, while that of imports grew 11.6% to 69.69 trillion yen on the back of rising demand for fuel from domestic utilities boosting thermal power generation in the wake of the accident at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, (Kyodo) news agency quoted the ministry as saying in a preliminary report. In March alone, exports increased 5.9% for the first rise in six months, helped by brisk demand for cars in the United States. But imports also climbed 10.5%, the 27th consecutive month of expansion, resulting in a deficit of 82.6 billion yen.