Mubasher: Kuwait’s trade surplus with Japan leaped by 63.1% on an annual basis in January 2020, according to a report issued by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on Wednesday. 

The trade surplus stood at 69.31 billion Japanese Yen ($631.33 million) last January, compared to 42.49 billion Japanese Yen ($387.03 million) in January 2019.

The surge in surplus was backed by higher Kuwaiti exports to Japan by 54.2% year-on-year (YoY) in January at 85.09 billion Japanese Yen ($775.07 million), compared to 55.17 billion Japanese Yen ($502.53 million).

Kuwait’s imports from Japan amounted to 15.78 billion Japanese Yen ($143.74 million) last month, posting an annual increase of 24.5% from 12.67 billion Japanese Yen ($115.41 million). 

At the level of the Middle East, the surplus with Japan rose by 8.3% YoY to reach 635.2 billion Japanese Yen ($5.79 billion) from 586.61 billion Japanese Yen ($5.34 billion). 

It is noteworthy that during 2019, bilateral surplus slid by 6.8% annually to 563.99 billion Japanese Yen from 605.26 billion Japanese Yen.