Japan Posts Record 1987 Trade Surplus : $96.5 Billion Up 3.7% From 1986; Bonn Also Sets New Mark

Japan posted a record trade surplus in 1987 of $96.464 billion, the Finance Ministry reported today in Tokyo.

Also today, West Germany announced a record $70-billion trade surplus for 1987 but pledged to narrow the excess of exports over imports in the future.

Both Japan and West Germany have been urged by the United States and other nations to cut exports and buy more of the rest of the world’s goods in order to help the United States correct its huge deficit in a way which does not cause a recession. The U.S. trading deficit with the rest of the world is likely to be about $170 billion in 1988, American officials say.

The 1987 Japanese trade surplus was up $3.637 billion, or 3.7%, from the 1986 level.

Continued Strength of Yen

The gain was largely due to the continued strength of the Japanese yen, said Koichi Nagano of the ministry’s Finance Bureau Research Division.

“The increase may seem high, but exports grew 9.2% over 1986, down from an 18.1% gain in 1986 over 1985, while imports soared 13.5% over 1986 after sagging 4.5% in 1986 from 1985,” Nagano said.

Japan’s trade surplus for December was $10.061 billion, up from November’s surplus, ending a seven-month streak of consecutively lower trade surpluses, Nagano said.

But last month’s black ink was the sixth month in a row that Japan’s trade surplus was lower than the year-earlier level, he said.

‘87 Surplus a Record

Sharp gains early in 1987 boosted the year’s surplus to a record, said Kazutoshi Habamura, economist for Nikko Research Center.

Economists said that although the volume of Japanese exports has been in a downtrend, the falling value of the U.S. dollar against the yen has distorted the trade figures. When the dollar drops, the value of yen-based exports rises even if the volume of shipments remains the same.

The high yen has caused Japanese goods to be much more expensive overseas but has made imports cheaper, encouraging Japanese consumers to buy imported products.

The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said the West German surplus rose to 117.5 billion marks ($70 billion) last year from 112.6 billion marks ($67 billion) in 1986.

Bonn Surplus Jumps

December’s West German monthly trade surplus also jumped to a record 13 billion marks ($8 billion) from 11 billion marks ($6.5 billion) in November.

The West German statistics office said the German surplus shrank in volume terms in 1987 but gave no details.

In a statement today, West German Economics Minister Martin Bangemann pledged that Bonn will cut its surpluses.