Japan's current account surplus unexpectedly widened in November as asmaller services account deficit and a larger income account offset a drop inthe trade surplus. The current account surplus rose 5 percent in November to 998 billion yen($8.4 billion), seasonally adjusted, the Ministry of Finance said. Economistshad expected the surplus to decline 4.1 percent. From a year ago, thesurplus rose a more-than-expected 22.1 percent. The current account is the broadest measure of the flow of goods andservices to and from Japan. The trade surplus accounts for almost all thecurrent account surplus and with economic growth in the U.S. slowing, thesurplus will probably shrink in coming months. ``Though the income account has been growing, the trade surplus isshrinking,'' said Kazuhiko Ogata, a senior economist at HSBC Securities(Japan) Ltd. ``The growth rate in exports is falling in line with the globaleconomy and that isn't good for the Japanese economy.'' Today's report showed exports fell 1.4 percent in November from October, tobe 9.2 percent higher than a year earlier. Imports rose 0.6 percent fromOctober, to be 12.8 percent higher than a year ago. Making up for that, the services account deficit, which tracks spending onthings such as travel and intellectual property rights, narrowed 13 percent to406.7 billion yen. The income account surplus, which tracks the flow of dividends and interestpayments in and out of Japan, widened 16 percent to 608.1 billion yen inNovember from October. The current transfers deficit widened to 95 billionyen. Japan is the world's second largest oil importer after the U.S. The ministrybased its figures for November on an oil price of $32.35 a barrel, up 40percent from a year earlier. Crude oil accounts for about one-eighth of totalimports. The yen averaged 108.89 to the dollar in November, down from 104.96 a yearago, the finance ministry said. It was recently at 118.74 to the dollar, near an18-month low.