TRADE

Japan’s Current-Account Surplus Shrinks: The surplus in Japan’s current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, shrank 28.9% to $4.13 billion in August from a year earlier, the Finance Ministry announced. The surplus in merchandise trade alone decreased by 27.8% to $5.08 billion from the same month a year earlier, dropping year-on-year for the 21st straight month. The August surplus was in line with economists’ forecasts, which showed that, on average, they expected a year-on-year fall of 28% in the figure. Economists had said that a continuing flow of imports into Japan was pushing down the nation’s overall current-account surplus. The surplus has been declining since September 1995.