Percent: Trade Tensions and Fall

percent: Exports have been a major component of the economy's current expansion cycle, which is likely to be the longest since the end of World War II. But demand has waned in recent months amid a trade war between the United States and China, according to The Japan Times. Nidec Corp., a maker of electric motors, last week warned investors that it expects a fall in profit for the year ending in March due to a fall in orders from China as a result of the trade tensions. Imports rose 9.7 percent from a year earlier to 82.69 trillion, outpacing a 4.1 percent increase in exports to 81.49 trillion. ; For December alone, exports marked their steepest fall since October 2016, down 3.8 percent to 7.02 trillion, and shipments to China, Japan's largest trading partner, sank 7 percent from a year earlier amid slumping demand for devices from Chinese makers of mobile phones, semiconductors and liquid crystal displays. Kazuma Maeda, an analyst at Barclays Securities Japan, warned that looking forward the fading boost to China-bound exports of capital goods driven by Made in China 2025' could prove a drag on exports. A string of natural disasters in the summer, including a powerful typhoon that temporarily shut down Osaka's main airport, may have also played a part in slowing imports. Made in China 2025, President Xi Jinping's blueprint for growing the country's technology industry, has been a source of U.S. President Donald Trump's ire and could be revised in bilateral trade talks. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.