Falling energy prices helped shrink Japan’s annual trade deficit by 78 percent in 2015, while a weaker yen boosted exports, led by automobiles, official data showed on Monday.
The nation’s fifth-straight annual trade deficit came to 2.83 trillion yen ($ 23.8 billion), with auto exports surging 10.3 percent, while the value of crude oil imports dropped 41.0 percent, the finance ministry said.
Japan remains highly dependent on energy imports to power the world’s third largest economy but benefited from sharp falls in oil prices during the year.
The country has kept most of its nuclear power reactors closed since a tsunami and earthquake triggered a disaster at its Fukushima atomic power plant in 2011, boosting dependence on imported fossil fuel and leading to successive annual trade deficits.
However, recent falls in energy prices have either narrowed monthly trade deficits or even allowed rare surpluses, with a cheaper yen and healthy demand in key foreign markets, including North America, helping auto exports.
For December 2015, the nation saw a trade surplus of 140 billion yen, returning to the black for the first time in two months, with auto exports showing an 8.6-percent increase.
Meanwhile, the value of crude oil imports fell 46.7 percent while that of liquefied natural gas dropped 45.6 percent, the finance ministry said.
