TOKYO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Japan posted a trade deficit of 634.5 billion yen (around 4 billion U.S. dollars) in July, marking the third consecutive month of red ink, government data showed Thursday, as the yen's depreciation inflated import costs.
The country's imports jumped 27.8 percent from a year earlier to 12.15 trillion yen, driven by higher crude oil costs stemming from the weaker yen and ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the finance ministry said in a preliminary report.
Exports also registered growth, rising 23.2 percent year on year to 11.51 trillion yen, supported by overseas demand for semiconductors, other electronic devices, and automobiles.
In value terms, both imports and exports reached record highs since comparable data became available in January 1979.
Due to the Middle East conflict that has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Japan's oil imports from the region in the reporting month fell 32.8 percent by volume compared with a year earlier, the data showed.
Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said rising crude oil prices are likely to keep Japan's trade balance in the red and projected the country's trade deficit to exceed 5 trillion yen for the full year of 2026. (1 Japanese yen equals 0.0063 U.S. dollars) ■