INTERNATIONAL

Hot Summer Trims Japan’s August Surplus: Though the government said the country’s high-profile current account surplus dropped, economists said the shrinkage was within expectations, and they cited an unusually hot summer as the primary factor behind it. The August current account surplus narrowed to $6.16 billion from $7.31 billion a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said. Economists had forecast a surplus of about $6.8 billion. “The summer electricity demand was high as it was unusually hot, and this led to an increase in crude oil imports, pushing up imports as a whole,” said Dai Hakozaki, economist at the Sanwa Research Institute. A ministry official also said electric companies’ demand for crude oil created a surge in imports.