Tokyo, March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's trade surplus probably widened in February as lunar New Year holidays in much of Asia curtailed imports, economists said. The trade surplus widened a seasonally adjusted 24 percent to 837.5 billion yen ($6.97 billion), according to the median of 10 economists' forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The finance ministry will release trade figures at 8:50 a.m. Tokyo time on March 24. Imports probably fell because Japan bought fewer goods from China and other countries that celebrated the lunar New Year in the first week of February. Exports probably rose for the first month in three, though they are likely to fall again because of a looming war in Iraq. That could undermine Japan's recovery from its third recession in a decade. Japan's ``growth will be ultimately determined by what happens overseas, particularly in the U.S.,'' said Tomoaki Shishido, an economist at Nomura Research Institute. ``It doesn't look that promising if there is a war in Iraq.''
Exports by companies such as Sharp. Corp., Japan's largest liquid-crystal display maker, accounted for about half of the 0.5 percent economic growth last quarter in the world's No. 2 economy. The U.S. is Japan's biggest overseas market. From a year earlier, the trade surplus probably widened to 950 billion yen from 105 billion yen, according to the median of 23 forecasts. //www.quote.bloomberg.com