Japan registered its biggest current account deficit since the start of 2014 in January.
The Daily Sabah reported on Tuesday that a jump in oil import costs weighed on the shortfall, offsetting gains in investment income, with continuing uncertainty due to the Ukrainian crisis and COVID-19 pandemic.
The current account data also highlighted the dependence of Japan's resource-deficient economy on imports of commodities and raw materials, which caused the trade deficit to widen.
Japan, which is the world's third-largest economy, posted a current account deficit of 1.1887 trillion yen ($10.31 billion) in January versus economists' median estimate of an 880 billion yen deficit in a Reuters poll.
It was also claimed by the Daily Sabah that it was the second straight month of deficit and marked the second-largest deficit under comparable data going back to 1985.
Data also showed declines in foreign tourist arrivals, reducing the travel account to a surplus of just 12.3 billion yen, with the overall services deficit coming to 737.9 billion yen.
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