On Monday, data showed that Japan’s wholesale prices increased by 9.3% from a year earlier. This was almost the same rate as the previous month and showed the first signs of an inflation peak in the midst of lower commodity prices around the world.
Wholesale prices had increased annually for the 21st month in a row.
The data may provide some relief to Japan’s economy, which almost entirely depends on imports for fuel and raw materials, despite the fact that costs for food and energy continued to rise.
The increase in the corporate goods price index, which measures the prices that businesses charge each other for goods and services, was slightly higher than the revised annual increase of 9.4% that occurred in October, but it was still higher than what was anticipated by the market.
The record, at 118.5, arrived at its most noteworthy at any point level.
According to data from the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the yen-based import price index increased by 28.2% in November compared to the previous year. This was a sharp decrease from October’s revised annual increase of 42.3%. Import costs have moderated as the currency has rebounded from lows that spanned multiple decades.
“Companies were passing on rising raw material costs for a broad range of goods. But some goods saw the impact of recent easing of global commodity prices,” a BOJ official told a briefing.
The data showed that prices for coal and petroleum products increased by 0.5 percent in November compared to the previous year, a decrease from the revised 2.8 percent gain in October.
It demonstrated that weakening demand from China was reflected in the prices of chemical goods and metal scrap, both of which saw modest price increases.
Japan’s wholesale and consumer inflation have been rising as a result of rising global commodity prices and the weakening yen, which raises import costs. Policymakers are concerned that this could harm Japan’s fragile economic recovery.
