January's current account surplus fell 59.7 percent to 249.6 billion yen for the second consecutive year-on-year decline, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Wednesday.
The figure, which represents the broadest measure of trade, also marked the smallest current account surplus on a monthly basis since January 1997, when a surplus of 152.2 billion yen was registered, a ministry official said.
Amid a slowdown in the global economy, decelerating growth in Japan's exports during the month resulted in a contraction of the current account surplus, the official said.