Japan ran a deficit of 79.34 billion yen (S$1.04 billion) in January, more than 22 times heavier than the year-before figure of 3.49 billion yen and much larger than the average market forecast for a deficit of 5.6 billion yen.

Overall imports grew 9.0 per cent from a year earlier to 6,490.9 billion yen, the highest figure for the month of January, with imports of crude oil surging 41.0 per cent, the finance ministry said.

Exports rose 7.7 per cent to 6,411.5 billion yen.

By region, Japan's trade surplus with the United States fell 4.8 per cent to 540.7 billion yen.

US-bound exports slipped 3.2 per cent to 1,214.0 billion yen to mark a year-on-year drop for the fifth consecutive month and imports edged down 1.9 per cent to 673.2 billion yen.

The surplus with the European Union expanded 22.6 per cent to 347.7 billion yen with exports up 10.6 per cent at 993.1 billion yen and imports up 5.1 per cent at 645.4 billion yen.

The trade surplus with the rest of Asia jumped 76.2 per cent to 293.6 billion yen. Exports climbed 8.2 per cent to 3,037.4 billion yen and imports went up 3.9 per cent to 2,743.8 billion yen. -- AFP