Cranes unload containers from a freighter at a container wharf in Tokyo port on October 22, 2014.
TOKYO: Japan's trade deficit expanded 1.6 percent year-on-year in September, marking its worst ever shortfall for the month, data showed Wednesday.
Japan logged a deficit of 958.3 billion yen ($ 8.96 billion) against a year-before shortfall of 943.2 billion yen, extending the run of red-ink to a 27th straight month.
The result was much worse than the market median forecast for a deficit of 768 billion yen.
The finance ministry said exports in September rose 6.9 percent to 6.38 trillion yen helped by higher shipments of cars, steel and ships.
But imports climbed 6.2 percent to a higher 7.34 trillion yen, boosted largely by imports of liquefied natural gas and telecommunications.
Purchases of natural gas remain high to plug the resource-poor country's energy gap after the 2011 Fukushima crisis forced the shutdown of nuclear reactors, which once supplied a third of the nation's power.
Telecommunications equipment includes cellphones. A new model of Apple's iPhone was launched in September. (AFP)
