TOKYO, Oct 9 - The surplus in Japan's current account, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, widened in August as exports were firm and fewer Japanese travelled abroad. The current account surplus rose 33.6 percent from the same month a year earlier to 1.4428 trillion yen ($13.17 billion), the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. Economists in a poll had forecast a roughly 24 percent increase to a median 1.3400 trillion yen. The trade surplus rose 20.3 percent to 954.1 billion yen, with exports up 6.7 percent at 4.1021 trillion yen and imports up 3.2 percent at 3.1480 trillion yen. A pickup in exports, improving corporate profits and rising share prices have boosted hopes that Japan is pulling out of a 10-year economic slump. But a surge in the yen since September has raised concerns that the export-led recovery may be dampened. "The yen's rise is not that steep in real effective terms so the impact is not that severe," said Shuji Shirota, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. "However, the fact that Japanese authorities are heavily intervening in the currency markets shows that they believe Japan's economy remains dependent on exports and they have to uphold that."
The dollar remained weak across the board on Thursday, hovering near three-year lows of 109.35 yen in early Tokyo trade, down nearly 10 yen from levels in August. A Finance Ministry official told a briefing that the impact of the yen's rise on current account data going forward was unclear. The current account surplus was also boosted as the services deficit continued to shrink as the number of Japanese travelling abroad had yet to return to last year's levels, after declining earlier due to Asia's SARS virus outbreak and Iraq war concerns. Bank of Japan policymakers are expected to discuss the impact of the yen's surge on the economy as they kick off a two-day policy-setting meeting later on Thursday. However, most analysts do not expect the central bank to further ease its ultra-loose stance at this time. ($1=109.51 yen)//