TOKYO, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan logged a goods trade surplus of 813.4 billion yen (7.3 billion U.S. dollars) in February, the largest in seven years due to growing exports to China, the government said Wednesday.
According to a preliminary report by the Finance Ministry, the value of exports in the reported month increased 11.3 percent from a year earlier to 6.35 trillion yen, rising for the third straight month.
Meanwhile, imports value increased 1.2 percent to 5.53 trillion yen, up for the second consecutive month, as the value of crude oil imports increased by 69.9 percent.
Regionally, trade with China marked a surplus of 111.77 billion yen, the first surplus since February 2012, with exports up by 28.2 percent to 1.20 trillion yen, and imports down by 17.7 percent to 1.08 trillion yen.
Trade with the United States ran a surplus of 611.3 billion yen, with exports up by 0.4 percent to 1.22 trillion yen and imports down by 0.7 percent to 611.9 billion yen.
Trade with the European Union ran a surplus of 41.1 billion yen, with exports up by 3.3 percent to 700.6 billion yen and imports down by 7.5 percent to 659.4 billion yen.
The figures were measured on a customs-cleared basis.(1 U.S. dollar equals to 111.70 Japanese Yen)
