Japanese exports rose by 16.1% year-on-year in March 2021, after declining by 4.5% the previous month. This has been the biggest increase since November 2017. Although this strong performance partially reflects a positive base effect – Japanese exports were hard hit by the pandemic in spring 2020 – it was nonetheless much higher than the consensus expectations, which anticipated a 11.6% growth. Broken down by destination, Japanese sales abroad increased in the large majority of countries worldwide, especially in China, its leading trading partner, where Japanese exports were very buoyant last month (+37.2% year-on-year in March). Globally, the strong performance of Japanese exports takes place in a context of international trade improvement and of a strong rebound of the Chinese economy. Japan should also benefit from the massive recovery package launched in the United States, which aims especially at bolstering US household consumption.
