Japan’s trade deficit hits record

Japan logged its largest ever annual trade deficit last year, with the soaring price of energy and raw materials compounded by the dramatic fall of the yen.

The resource-poor country is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, which became sharply more expensive last year, largely due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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In 2022, the value of imports was 19.97 trillion yen ($155 billion) higher than exports -- Japan's largest ever deficit. Comparable data has been available since 1979.