Japanese current account shows deficit after 13 years by reaching 1.8 billion dollars. It seems people do not want to buy Japanese cars anymore, not because of their quality, but because of the ongoing recession that has recently been compared to the Great Depression.
A current account is an economic figure that is used to measure the balance between a country’s exports and imports. If the account has a positive balance, it means during a specific year there were more exports than imports, however, a negative balance indicates the opposite: more imports than exports. In the case of Japan the exports halved in the last couple of months, whereas imports only decreased by a third.
Not only did car exports go down, but the recession also affected the semiconductor and electronic parts exports. As Michito Yamagami finance ministry official said: “We incurred the current account deficit due to a plunge in exports. Our exports to key regions, including the United States, Europe and Asia, were all down sharply due to the deteriorating global economy.” Hiroshi Watanabe economist also made comment on the current situation of the country: „Japan's export-driven economy is really engulfed by waves of the global economic crisis.”
