Japan's exports fall for 2nd straight month

Japan says exports fell for the second straight month in November as a faltering global economy weighs increasingly on overseas demand.

The finance ministry says exports contracted 4.5 percent from a year earlier to 5.198 trillion yen ($66.7 billion). The result is steeper than October's 3.8 percent decline.

With imports jumping 11.4 percent, Japan recorded a second-straight monthly trade deficit of 684.7 billion yen.

The data underscore the growing pressures facing the world's No. 3 economy.

Export-reliant Japan bounced back in solid form after the March earthquake. But momentum appears to be waning in the face of a persistently strong yen and Europe's debt problems.