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European Council President Herman Van Rompuy meeting Emperor Akihito in Tokyo, Wed April 28, 2010. The president launched his first anthology of Japanese-style "haiku" poetry in Brussels on April 15th and it was likely discussed at the imperial meeting.
Japan’s exports rose strongly in April boosted by continuing robust demand from Asia with growth accelerating to a seasonally adjusted 2.3 per cent in April from March’s 1 per cent, and imports rose 3.4 per cent.
The value of shipments was up 40.4 per cent from a year earlier, the fifth straight increase, compared with 43.5 per cent in March, the Finance Ministry said today in Tokyo. Exports to Asia, accounting for more than half of Japan’s total exports, rose 45.3 per cent from a year earlier, while those to the United States were up 34.5 per cent. Shipments to the European Union advanced 19.8 per cent from a year earlier, falling from a 26.7 per cent risen in March but marking the fifth straight monthly gain. Exports to China, Japan’s biggest market, rose 41.4 per cent from a year earlier to ¥1.15trn.
The Finance Ministry said that in the fiscal year ending March 31st, only 12 per cent of Japan’s shipments went to the European Union, compared with 19 per cent to China and 16 per cent to the US.
Eurostat, the EU statistics office, said last month that between 2000 and 2009, EU27 exports of goods to Japan fell in value by around 20 per cent, from €45bn to €36bn, while EU27 imports from Japan decreased by almost 40 per cent, from €92bn to €56 bn. As a result, the EU27 deficit in trade with Japan decreased from €47bn in 2000 to €20bn in 2009 and the share of Japan in the EU27's total external trade in goods fell significantly.
In 2009, Japan accounted for 3 per cent of EU27 exports and 5 per cent of EU27 imports, and was the EU27's sixth most important trading partner.
A jump in in exports drove most of Japan’s 4.9 per cent annualised growth in the first quarter of 2010.
During the first quarter, the Eurozone grew at a 0.2% pace in the three month period; US GDP increased by 0.8% compared with the previous quarter, after +1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2009; Japan's GDP advanced by 1.2 per cent.
The trade balance in April was had a surplus of ¥742.3bn ($8.25bn).
