Japan's current account surplus more than doubled to 1.17 trillion yen in December compared with 545 billion a year ago and also beat market expectations of 1,04 trillion yen, Finance Ministry data said Monday.
The goods and services account surplus increased to 622 billion yen from 127 billion and the primary income surplus rose to 649 billion yen from 442 billion yen. Meanwhile, the secondary account deficit widened to 105 billion yen from 24 billion yen a year ago.
For 2020, Japan recorded a current account surplus of 17.70 trillion - down 14% year on year, the data said.
Meanwhile, in the travel sector the 2020 surplus narrowed to about a fifth of that in 2019 - the first shrinking since 2015 and was attributed to international travel bans as a result of the virus pandemic, the ministry said.
The travel balance, which reflects the amount of money foreign visitors spend in Japan compared with what Japan travels spend while abroad, fell 79.2% to 562.1 billion yen from a record 2.70 trillion yen in 2019, the ministry said.
In November the current account surplus for November rose 29.0% on year on a decline in imports.
In November, Japan saw the start of a third wave of virus infections with daily numbers of cases continuing to rewrite record levels, Kyodo News reported then.
