Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s trade balance surplus with Japan jumped 21% year-on-year in October, reaching SAR 9.26 billion ($2.47 billion), compared to SAR 7.65 billion ($2.04 billion), the Japanese Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) data revealed.
The oil-rich Kingdom’s exports to Japan rose to SAR 10.74 billion ($2.87 billion) by the end of last month, from SAR 9.08 billion ($2.42 billion) a in the same month a year earlier, the MoF’s data added.
On the other hand, Saudi imports from the world’s third largest economy amounted to SAR 1.48 billion ($395.86 million) in October 2018, compared to SAR 1.42 billion ($379.42 million) during the corresponding month a year before.
During October, Japan suffered a deficit of $3.98 billion in trade balance, against $2.47 billion in surplus during the same month last year.
Since February 2011, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co, which is known globally as Saudi Aramco, has been storing its crude oil in Okinawa, Japan.
The largest global oil firm uses these reserves to provide China, South Korea, and Japan with oil.
Japan gets a priority claim stockpiles in case of emergency and treats them as quasi-governmental reserves, counting half of the barrels as part of the local strategic crude reserves.
