Consumer prices in Japan’s capital rise at fastest pace since 2014

TOKYO  -Core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide inflation, rose 2.8 percent in September from a year earlier, marking the biggest gain since 2014 in a sign of broadening cost pressures.

The core consumer price index (CPI) for Japan’s capital, which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, matched a median market forecast and followed a 2.6-percent gain in August.

It was the fourth straight month the index’s rate of increase exceeded the Bank of Japan’s 2-percent target, and matched a 2.8-percent gain hit in June 2014.

Prices rose for a wide range of goods and services including electricity bills, chocolate, sushi to hotel bills, government data showed, a sign more firms were passing on rising raw material costs to households.

The data is among key factors the BOJ will scrutinise in gauging whether recent cost-push inflation could change into a sustained rise in prices driven by robust domestic demand.

The BOJ has pledged to keep monetary policy ultra-loose despite recent rises in inflation, which it sees as driven by temporary factors like higher fuel and raw material rather than strong consumption.