/www.bloomberg.com/ By Yoshiko Matsushita and Daisuke Takato
Tokyo, Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's current account surplus shrank to 1 trillion yen ($8.3 billion) in September from August as exports fell, suggesting that the recovery from recession may be short-lived.
The surplus on the current account, the broadest measure of trade because it includes investment and services, narrowed 14 percent from August, seasonally adjusted, Ministry of Finance figures showed. Economists had expected the surplus to shrink to 1.01 trillion yen.
Hitachi Ltd. and other manufacturers are paring estimates for profit as demand from the U.S., Japan's biggest overseas market, cools. Exports, the main driver of Japan's growth of 0.6 percent in the second quarter, are slumping.
``The outlook on the current account isn't looking very good as exports, except those to China, are declining so much,'' said Eishi Yokoyama, a strategist at AIG Global Investment Corp. ``We've already passed the peak of the economic rebound. The economy will start worsening from the beginning of next year.''
The yen fell against the dollar after Haruhiko Kuroda, vice finance minister for international affairs, said Japan will ``take appropriate action'' in the foreign exchange market.
The yen fell to 119.99 against the dollar at 9:59 a.m. in Tokyo from 119.84 late Friday in New York.
The world's No. 2 economy is emerging from its third recession in a decade. Growth probably slowed to 0.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
U.S. Slows
Hitachi, Japan's largest electronics maker, cut its net income forecast for the fiscal year ending in March to 36 billion yen from its April estimate of 60 billion yen, blaming a slower- than-expected recovery in the U.S. and weakness in the Japanese economy.
Exports fell for a fourth month in September as economic growth in the U.S., which buys two-fifths of Japan's exports, slowed. U.S. growth will slow to a 2.2 percent annual rate this quarter from an expected 3.6 percent pace in the third quarter, according to a consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators.
From a year earlier, the current account surplus fell 6.8 percent to 1.17 trillion yen. Economists had expected a 1.30 trillion yen surplus.
Japan's income account surplus, which tracks profits, dividends and interest payments, fell to 672.7 billion yen from 715.1 billion yen in August. The services deficit, which includes overseas travel, widened to 473.3 billion yen from a 340.3 billion yen deficit in August.