Export growth slows as global downturn risks loom

Falling demand: An electronic board showing numbers of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Weak exports have complicated Japan’s efforts to spur economic growth. — AFP

TOKYO: Japanese exports grew for a second straight month in October but at a sharply slower pace due to slumping China-bound shipments of chips and steel, as weakening external demand takes its toll on the trade-reliant economy.

Exports rose 1.6% in October from a year earlier, Finance Ministry data showed yesterday, faster than a 1.2% increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll but slower than the 4.3% rise in September.