Last year's trade statistics released by the Ministry of Finance showed the largest trade deficit in history due to the increase in imports due to the rise in energy prices such as crude oil and the record depreciation of the yen.
According to trade statistics for the past year, the balance of trade, which is calculated by subtracting imports from exports, was a deficit of 19.9713 trillion yen.
The deficit increased by more than 18 trillion yen from the previous year (2021), making it the largest single-year trade deficit since 1979, when comparisons are possible.
This is more than 7 trillion yen larger than the deficit in 2014, which was the largest ever.
In addition to rising prices of energy resources such as crude oil and LNG (liquefied natural gas) against the backdrop of the situation in Ukraine, the record-breaking depreciation of the yen, which at one point exceeded 150 yen to the dollar, led to a decline in the value of imports. It swelled up significantly.
The import value last year was 118.1573 trillion yen, an increase of 39.2% from the previous year, and the export value was 98.186 trillion yen, an increase of 18.2%.
Both the import value and the export value are the highest ever, but although the export of automobiles to the United States has increased, the increase in the import value has greatly exceeded that.
On the other hand, last month's trade balance was a deficit of 1,448.5 billion yen.
The deficit, which had exceeded 2 trillion yen since August last year, fell to the 1 trillion yen level for the first time in five months, but the trade deficit has continued for 1 year and 5 months.