TOKYO: Exports from Japan jumped 5.4 percent year-on-year to JPY 6679 billion in December of 2016, beating market expectations of a 1.2 percent increase. It is the first annual rise in fifteen months amid improving global demand and a surge in sales to China.
Shipments rose mainly for machinery (+8.9 percent), namely power generating machines (+6.5 percent); electrical machinery (+9.2 percent), namely semiconductors (+14.9 percent), IC (+22.5 percent), electrical apparatus (+17.9 percent) and electrical power machinery (+15.3 percent); and others (+11.7 percent) including scientific and optical instruments (+2.7 percent). Sales to China went up 12.5 percent to a record high and those to the United States increased 1.3 percent.
Considering full 2016, exports went down 7.4 percent, the first decline since 2012. Exports in Japan averaged 3222.50 JPY Billion from 1963 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 7681.69 JPY Billion in March of 2008 and a record low of 105.08 JPY Billion in January of 1963.