Japanese exports expanded 12% year on year in March, easily beating the median estimate of 6.7%. The increase was boosted by healthy growth of shipments to China and Asia (16.4% and 16.3%), and an improvement in exports to the US, which grew 3.4% following a 0.4% rise in February.
Inbound shipments were up almost 16%, after expanding 1.2% in February, the sharpest increase since 2014.