Japanese August exports seen in sharpest fall in three years – Reuters poll

The latest Reuters poll published on Friday revealed that the respondents see the Japanese exports falling yet again, posting a contraction at the fastest pace in over three years in August, in the face of US-China trade worries and global growth concerns.

Key Findings:

“Exports in August are forecast to have slumped 10.9% from a year earlier, which would be the biggest shrinkage since 14.0% in July 2016 and a far sharper one than July’s 1.5% drop.

An August contraction would also extend the streak of declines that began in December to a ninth month.

The poll also forecast that imports would fall 11.2% in August from a year earlier, likely indicating the trade deficit widened to 355.9 billion yen ($3.29 billion) from a revised 250.7 billion yen deficit the previous month.

The Reuters poll also found the core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, likely rose 0.5% in August from a year earlier.

That would mark the weakest price growth since July 2017, when the index also expanded 0.5% and deterioration from 0.6% in the previous month.”

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