Japan posted a current account surplus of 433.0 billion yen in November, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.
That beat expectations for a surplus of 139.5 billion yen following the 833.4 billion yen surplus in October.
The trade balance showed a deficit of 636.8 billion yen versus forecasts for a shortfall of 734.0 billion yen following the 766.6 billion yen deficit in the previous month.
Imports were up 2.2 percent on year to 6.959 trillion yen, slowing from the 7.4 percent jump a month earlier. Exports climbed an annual 10.8 percent to 6.322 trillion yen, easing from the 11.2 percent spike in October.
The data also showed that the capital account balance reflected a deficit of 6.6 billion yen after showing a 13.9 billion yen shortfall in October.
The financial account had a surplus of 506.4 billion yen - down sharply from the 1,207.7 billion yen surplus in the previous month.
The adjusted current account surplus came in at 914.5 billion - beating expectations for 69295billion yen and down from 947.0 billion yen a month earlier.
Also on Tuesday, the Bank of Japan said that bank lending in Japan was up 2.7 percent on year in December, coming in at 422.604 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations and down from the 2.8 percent gain in November.
Including trusts, bank lending added an annual 2.6 percent to 485.945 trillion yen, also matching expectations and down from 2.7 percent in the previous month.
Lending from trusts gained 1.6 percent on year to 63.340 trillion yen after adding a revised 1.5 percent a month earlier.
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