From Bloomie:
Japan reported a wider-than-expected trade deficit in July as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and austerity measures dragged down exports and higher oil prices boosted imports.
The shortfall was 517.4 billion yen ($6.5 billion), after a revised surplus of 60.3 billion yen in June, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 28 analysts was for a deficit of 270 billion yen. Exports fell 8.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with an estimate of 2.9 percent, while imports rose 2.1 percent.
And the chart:
