Japan posted its largest trade surplus ever.

April’s unadjusted trade surplus reached $6.83 billion, up from a year-earlier surplus of $3.26 billion, the Finance Ministry announced. Exports increased 19.3% to $17.74 billion, the second-largest total on record, while imports dropped 6.1% from April, 1985, to $10.91 billion. Officials said, however, that the sharp rise in the value of the yen had the effect of making April’s trade figures appear larger. If the yen-dollar rate were the same as last year, they said, the surplus would only have grown by 5.1%.