Japan trade balance for November misses the central estimate, comes in at a surplus of yen 366.8bn

  • expected Y 522.5bn, prior Y 871.7bn

Trade balance adjusted 570.2bn beats

  • expected Y 545.7bn, prior Y 314.3bn

Exports miss big time, -4.2% y/y

  • expected 0.4% y/y, prior -0.2%

Imports also a decent sized miss -11.1%

  • expected -9.5% y/y, prior -13.3%

The export result is not a good one Japanese industry, and the import result is not a good one for an indication of the health of the domestic economy.

As is often the case there is little initial reaction in the yen to the Japanese data.

Exports to:

  • China +3.8% y/y
  • the US -2.5% y/y
  • the EU -2.6% y/y
  • Asia -4.3% y/y