Japan's trade deficit reaches record high in Aug.

The Japanese government said Thursday that the country's good trade deficit stood at 960.3 billion yen (about 9.8 billion U.S. dollars) in August, mainly due to the yen's slide and growing demand for energy.

The deficit was the first time Japan's trade balance had recorded 14 straight months of red ink since the period from July 1979 to August 1980, when the country had been hit by the second oil shock, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.

At the same time, it was also the biggest for the month of August and the sixth largest for any month since comparable data became available in January 1979.

According to the report, Japan's exports increased by 14.7 percent from a year earlier with the yen's slide in August, but it still failed to overweigh imports, which expanded 16.0 percent in the reporting time.

Shipments to China, rose 15.8 percent to 1,119.0 billion yen in August, while imports from China went up 17.6 percent to 1,423.1 billion yen.

Exports to the European Union gained 18.0 percent to 564.5 billion yen, and imports from the region increased 11.2 percent to 638.3 billion yen.

Shipments to the United States soared 20.6 percent to 1,069.5 billion yen, and imports rose 14.0 percent to 574.2 billion yen.

The data were measured on a customs-cleared basis.