That left the overall surplus for the period at $83.8 billion, a big increase from $71.8 billion in the first nine months of 1991.

He said the overall surplus for this fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, would be about $160 billion.

A major goal, he added, was to fix the overall current-account surplus at $5 billion.

But it raises its overall surplus by being supercompetitive within Europe.

Japan's overall surplus this year is expected to be more than $110 billion, the largest in the world.

And he reminded reporters that the overall federal surplus would still be huge this year and next.

Those estimates showed that the Government would have an overall surplus of nearly $2.7 trillion from this year through 2009.

The overall surplus narrowed steadily in 1989, to $56.98 billion from $79.63 billion a year earlier.

On the other hand, an increase in cereal production would simply add to the overall surplus and lead to the introduction of higher set-aside rates.

Last year, Taiwan had an overall surplus of $12.5 billion.