Japan logged its second-biggest current account deficit in November, following weak exports amid the strong yen, government data showed on Friday.

The deficit in the balance, one of the widest gauges of international trade, stood at 222.4 billion yen (about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars), the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.

The deficit, worse than market forecasts, was the second worst under comparable data available since 1985 after 455.6 billion yen marked in January 2012 and was the first deficit for the month of November.

The goods trade balance registered an 847.5 billion yen deficit, with exports down 4.2 percent to 4,778.8 billion yen and imports up 0.8 percent to 5,626.3 billion yen.