Japan 1st-half exports fall 15%, sharpest drop in decade due to virus

Japan's exports in the first half of 2020 fell 15.4 percent from a year earlier, posting the largest year-on-year drop in more than 10 years, as the new coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on overseas demand for cars and other industrial goods, government data showed Monday.But economists expect the drop in exports to slow in the second half, with the impact of the virus outbreak waning gradually as many countries reopen their economies and set up stimulus measures to revive weakened demand.Exports in the January-June period fell to 32.36 trillion yen ($300 billion), logging the steepest d…READ FULL ARTICLE