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Japanese August exports off 1.3pc despite weak yen and 3.9pc gain in July

JAPANESE exports fell 1.3 per cent year on year in August, less than the median estimate for a 2.6 per cent annual decline, and after 3.9 per cent gain in the previous month, and having already fallen in June and May.

August exports failed to increase despite the yen抯 decline to a six-year low, partly because many Japanese firms have shifted their production overseas.

The uneven performance was attributed to a contraction of shipments to the United States, another sign the economy is struggling.

"The US economy is recovering, so things should not be this bad," said Hiroshi Miyazaki, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

"The data do reflect a shift in production overseas. I don抰 think monetary policy easing is needed, but there are doubts about how the overall economy will perform in the third quarter," he said.

Japan抯 economy shrank an annualised 7.1 per cent in the second quarter and was hit by the tax hike, resulting in the biggest contraction since the 2009 global financial crisis.

Confidence among Japanese manufacturers fell the most in nearly two years in September as a tax increase hit the economy harder than expected, a Reuters poll showed, suggesting further difficulty for the struggling recovery.

The worsening sentiment in the monthly Reuters Tankan, with only a feeble improvement forecast for December, bodes ill for the Bank of Japan抯 quarterly tankan survey, which had been forecast to rebound in the third quarter.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has repeatedly said the nation is on track to meet the central bank抯 two per cent inflation goal, but the deep economic contraction has raised questions about the outlook for growth.