Japan in the red for first time in 30 years

JAPAN has racked up its first trade deficit in more than 30 years after it was forced to import costly energy to overcome shortages caused the devastating tsunami.

The world’s third-largest economy said manufacturers had also moved a lot of their production abroad to overcome a surge in the value of the yen following last year’s catastrophe. The last occasion when Japan saw a trade deficit was in 1980.

Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at Japan Research Institute, said: “It reflects fundamental changes in Japan’s economy, particularly among manufacturers.

“It’s got difficult for manufacturers to export, so they’re they’ve moved production abroad so that products sold outside the country are made outside the country.”

The yen slumped against the dollar yesterday following the publication of figures showing a ¥2.49 trillion (£20.5bn) deficit for 2011.