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By Trend

Japan ran its biggest single-month trade deficit in more than eight years in May as high commodity prices and declines in the yen swelled imports, clouding the country's economic outlook, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The growing trade deficit underscores the headwinds the world's third-largest economy faces from a slide in the yen and surging costs of fuel and raw materials, on which domestic manufacturers rely for production.

Imports soared 48.9% in the year to May, Ministry of Finance data showed on Thursday, above a median market forecast for a 43.6% gain in a Reuters poll.

That outpaced a 15.8% year-on-year rise in exports in the same month, resulting in a 2.385 trillion yen ($17.80 billion) trade deficit, the largest shortfall in a single month since January 2014.

"The weak yen is a major factor behind the rise in imports," said Harumi Taguchi, principal economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"But there'll be a lag before it benefits exports," she said, adding that U.S.- and China-bound shipments faced parts supply constraints and China's strict coronavirus lockdowns.

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