The current account surplus fell 27.1 percent in August from a year earlier to 708.6 billion yen, the Finance Ministry said Monday in a preliminary report.
This monthly decline -- the ninth straight in the nation's broadest measure of trade -- reflects the ongoing slide of the economy and the global slowdown, a ministry official said.
The future direction of the current account surplus will be difficult to gauge because its components are giving off mixed signs, the official said.