Japan's current account surplus in May logged 3.44 trillion yen (about 23.6 billion U.S. dollars), a record high for the month since comparable data became available in 1985, said a government report on Tuesday.

The surplus in the current account balance, one of the widest gauges of international trade, gained 16.5 percent from the previous year, as the country's goods trade deficit shrank amid falling energy prices, the finance ministry said in a preliminary report.

The goods trade registered a deficit of 522.3 billion yen, more than halving from a year earlier, as imports fell 7.5 percent to 8.56 trillion yen while exports dropped 1.4 percent to 8.03 trillion yen, due partly to reduced car shipments to the United States.

Despite the hefty U.S. tariffs on auto imports that took effect in early April, a ministry official said it is "extremely difficult" to determine the specific impact of the levies on the export data.

Meanwhile, the surplus in primary income, which reflects how much Japan earns from overseas investments, shrank 2.7 percent from the year before to 4.26 trillion yen, hit by lower interest earnings as foreign bond yields fell.

Among other key components, Japan's services trade balance swung back to a 201.1 billion yen surplus from the year-before deficit of 51.6 billion yen, marking the highest figure for May.

The travel surplus stood at 629.2 billion yen, also the highest for the month, lifted by strong demand from inbound tourism. (1 Japanese yen equals about 0.007 U.S. dollars)