Japan reported the fastest export growth in a year and a smaller-than-expected trade deficit, boosting prospects that the recovery in the world’s third- biggest economy will be sustained.

Outbound shipments rose 5.9 percent in March from a year earlier, exceeding the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey for a gain of 0.2 percent. The deficit was 82.6 billion yen ($1 billion), less than the median forecast for a 223.2 billion yen shortfall. Comparisons are distorted by the earthquake in March, 2011.

The International Monetary Fund estimated this week that Japan’s economy may expand as much as 2 percent this year, boosted by reconstruction spending. The yen’s decline against the dollar after the Bank of Japan boosted monetary stimulus in February aided exporters after the currency rose to a post World War II record last year.

“A weaker yen against the dollar and euro is helping trade competitiveness,” Matthew Circosta, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, said before the report. “A synchronized upswing in reconstruction and exports should drive a better second half.”

The yen traded at 81.38 per dollar as of 9:14 a.m. in Tokyo compared with a postwar high of 75.35 in October.

Exports to Europe and China slid, while those to the U.S. rose 24 percent, led by motor vehicle shipments. Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan’s largest shipping line, expects its car-carrying vessels to transport the most vehicles in five years in the 12 months started April 1 as demand surges in North America.

“The market in America is extremely strong,” Executive Vice President Masahiro Kato said April 16 in Tokyo.

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., the maker of Prius hybrids, the world’s best-selling gasoline-electric vehicle, raised on April 5 its forecast for 2012 industrywide U.S. sales of cars and light trucks, citing recovering consumer confidence.

Japan’s imports rose 10.5 percent in March from a year earlier as nuclear plant shutdowns swelled the nation’s energy bill, Thursday’s report showed. The nation faces the prospect of a stint without atomic-generated electricity for the first time in more than four decades after closures in the aftermath of last year’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

In total, 53 of 54 nuclear reactors have been shut either owing to damage, government order, or mandatory maintenance. The last one running, on the northern island of Hokkaido, goes offline from May 5. (Bloomberg)