Tokyo: Japan said on Thursday it logged a record trade deficit in 2012 as exports to debt-hit Europe plunged and a bitter diplomatic spat with its biggest trade partner China weighed on demand.
The gloomy numbers spell more bad news for the world’s third-largest economy, as it struggles to cement a recovery after the 2011 quake-tsunami, the worst nuclear crisis in a generation and the impact of an export-denting strong yen.
And the figures underscore the size of the task ahead for the new government, led by the hawkish Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who campaigned on a pledge to turn around Japan’s fortunes with big public spending and by pressuring the nation’s central bank for more aggressive monetary policy.
