Ministry of Finance. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan's current account surplus for September fell 31.1 percent from a year earlier, down for the second straight month, as the trade balance worsened mainly due to sluggish car exports and higher energy import costs, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

       The current account balance, one of the widest gauges of international trade, marked a surplus of 1.0 trillion yen ($9.1 billion), logging a 15th consecutive month of black ink, the ministry's preliminary report showed. In August, the surplus posted a 21.8 percent decline.

       The country's goods trade balance registered a deficit for the second successive month with 229.9 billion yen in red ink, down from a 906.7 billion yen surplus in the previous year.

       A ministry official attributed the trade deficit to a 40.3 percent year-on-year drop in car exports and increased purchases of energy resources pushed up by surging crude oil prices as well as medicines as demand for coronavirus vaccines grew.

       The sagging car exports resulted from output reductions by Japanese automakers due to supply chain disruptions caused by factory shutdowns in Southeast Asia amid surging coronavirus cases and the prolonged global semiconductor shortage.

       The services trade balance posted a deficit of 257.0 billion yen, deteriorating from 208.3 billion yen a year earlier. The travel surplus shrank to 15.2 billion yen from the previous year's 20.8 billion yen due to international travel restrictions amid the pandemic that continued to suppress the number of inbound travelers.

       Meanwhile, the surplus in primary income, which reflects returns on overseas investments, rose 13.9 percent to 1.8 trillion yen, as Japanese firms received more dividend payments from their overseas subsidiaries due to boosted energy prices, the official said.

       The ministry had previously said that Japan's current account balance was in the black for 86 straight months in August. But an annual retroactive revision on a component of its primary income saw the balance in June last year turn red, according to the official.

       For the April-September period, Japan ran a current account surplus of 8.0 trillion yen, up 39.8 percent from the same period last year.

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