Japan Current Account Surplus Skyrockets

A widening trade gap saw Japan’s current account surplus skyrocket nearly 70-fold in January from the same month the year before, economists said Friday.

The Ministry of Finance announced that Japan’s unadjusted current account surplus--the broadest measure of a country’s trade in goods and services--surged to $3.06 billion last month from January, 1991, when the surplus totaled $45 million.