JAPAN’S export growth weakened to its slowest in seven months in September, while a surge in imports added to worries that pandemic-led global supply chain snags could derail the country’s fragile economic recovery. Exports are losing steam at a time when a weaker yen and a spike in oil prices have pushed up import costs, hurting resource-poor Japan’s terms of trade and potentially undermining Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s pledge to correct wealth gaps. The trade data will be among factors the Bank of Japan will scrutinise when it releases fresh quarterly growth and inflation projections at its policy meeting later this month. Exports rose 13 percent in September from a year earlier, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday, compared with a median market forecast for an 11 percent rise, as car shipments tumbled 40.3 percent, the first drop in seven months. While ahead of forecasts, export growth weakened from 26.2 percent in the previous month and was the slowest since February. “While the effect of auto production cuts will abate once supply bottlenecks are resolved, fundamental concerns for growth peak-outs in the United States and China are unchanged,” said Kota Suzuki, economist at Daiwa Securities. “Exports will still be in the weak state for a while.” (SD-Agencies) | 