Japan’s export growth cools as pandemic hits supply chains

Bigger shipment: Vehicles wait to be exported at a port in Kawasaki. Japan’s exports rose 26.2% in August compared with the same month a year earlier. — AP

TOKYO: Japan’s exports extended double-digit gains in August, led by strong shipments of chip manufacturing equipment, although the pace of growth weakened as Covid-19 hit key Asian supply chains and slowed factory production.

The trade growth is unlikely to dispel worries about the outlook for Japan’s economy, which has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels after taking an enormous hit from a collapse in global trade in the first quarter of 2020.