Japan’s current account surplus down 50.2 percent in June

TOKYO – Japan’s current account surplus shrank by a bigger-than-expected 50.2 percent from a year earlier in June as the impact of the March disasters continued to weigh on exports, data showed Monday.

The surplus came to 526.9 billion yen ($6.7 billion) in June, the finance ministry data showed.

The result was worse than the median forecast of a 35.8 percent decline in a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires and the Nikkei business daily.

The current account surplus decreased for the fourth consecutive month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.