Tokyo, Dec 15 (IANS): Japan logged a 2.03 trillion yen ($14.95 billion) trade deficit in November, a record for the month and marking the 16th straight month of red ink, amid higher energy prices and a weaker yen, the Finance Ministry said in a report on Thursday.

According to the Finance Ministry, the country's imports jumped 30.3 per cent from a year earlier to 10.86 trillion yen, pushed up by soaring prices for energy-linked imports, while exports were up 20 per cent to 8.84 trillion yen), as Japan heads toward booking its largest-ever annual trade deficit at the end of 2022, reports Xinhua news agency.

Japan's deficit has climbed to 18.51 trillion yen this year, well past the current record high logged in 2014 of 12.82 trillion yen, according to the Ministry report.

In the same period, Japan logged a trade surplus of 680.39 billion yen with the US, with exports leaping 32.5 per cent to 1.72 trillion yen, while imports jumped 21.5 percent to 1.04 trillion yen, according to the Finance Ministry.

The prevailing view among leading economists here remains that in the first half of 2023, Japan will slip into a mild recession amid a global slowdown that will further hit the resource-poor country's sluggish exports.

This, economists said, is evidenced by the economy here unexpectedly shrinking for the first time in four quarters in the July-September period, and the current account turning red in both January and October this year.

Japan's poor fiscal health, the worst in the industrialized world, has also been punctuated by a persistently weak yen owing to a widening interest rate gap between the Bank of Japan and the US Federal Reserve, they added.