Japanese exports slow in September, rekindle talk of BoJ stimulus

Japanese exports grew at their slowest pace in over a year in September, rekindling talk of the need for further monetary stimulus out of the Bank of Japan.

Asia's second largest economy sold 6.4bn yen worth of goods last month, for a year-on-year rise of 0.6% in non-seasonally adjusted terms, according to data from the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo.

Economists had penciled in an increase of 3.8%.

Imports were even weaker, falling 11.1% to 6.5bn yen.

As a result, the trade surplus was reduced sharply, dropping 88% to 115m yen.

In both value and volume terms, exports to the People's Republic of China were by far the weakest, having dropped by 3.5% in price terms.

"Japan is at risk of falling back into recession in the third quarter and today’s trade data did nothing to suggest that this would be avoided. The Asian market proved particularly troublesome for Japanese exporters in September, particularly China where exports fell 3.5% compared to last year," said Craig Erlam, Senior Market analyst at Oanda.