Largest Year-on-Year Decline Ever for Kyushu Exports
Moji Customs announced that exports in 2009 from the Kyushu economic sphere, which includes Okinawa and Yamaguchi Prefectures, fell to 5.5661 trillion yen in value terms, which was a 31.3% decline. That was the first decline in eight years and is the largest single-year decline since the Plaza Accord of 1986 caused a sharp appreciation of the yen. Meanwhile, imports fell for the first time in seven years to 5.3347 trillion yen, a 42.5% year-on-year plunge. It was the second-largest decline on record.