Japan Aug current account surplus +4.2 pct yr/yr

TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Japan's current account surplus unexpectedly rose 4.2 percent inAugust from a year earlier, Ministry of Finance data showed on Tuesday, although the outlookremains murky as a slowdown in the Chinese economy and Europe's debt crisis are hurting thenation's exports. [JPCURA=ECI]

The surplus stood at 454.7 billion yen ($5.82 billion), against a median forecast for 425.5billion yen. The current account has been in a surplus for seven straight months.

Following are details of the current account balance; economists' median forecast is inparentheses:

(Unadjusted, billion yen)AUG JULY AUG YR BEFORE

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Current accountbalance +454.7 (+425.5) +625.4 +436.3Trade balance -644.5 -373.6 -690.3Income balance +1,389.0 +1,422.1 +1,353.5

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For the full tables, see the MOF's website of at

($1 = 78.1600 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Joseph Radford)

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Keywords: JAPAN ECONOMY/CURRENT