Japan exports rose 3.9 percent in July from the year ago period, data showed on Wednesday, compared with a Reuters forecast for a gain of 3.8 percent and after falling 2 percent in June.
Imports fell an annual 2.3 percent versus expectations for a 1.7 percent decline and following an 8.4 percent in increase in June. This widened the country's trade deficit to 964 billion yen for July compared with June's deficit of 822.2 billion yen. Expectations were for a trade gap of 702.5 billion yen.
"I think the big surprise there is with the import number," Izumi Devalier, Japan Economist at HSBC, told CNBC. "We had seen very strong imports in the previous month so we had expected it to come down a bit but it looks like imports are recovering quite quickly though consumption remains weak in Japan."
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