Inflation in Japan’s capital slows in November

A view of a vegetable stand with prices at a supermarket in Tokyo, Japan, March 24, 2023. REUTERS/Androniki Christodoulou/File photo

TOKYO  – Core consumer inflation in Japan’s capital Tokyo, considered a leading indicator of nationwide trends, hit 2.3 percent in November, slowing from the previous month in a sign of easing cost-push pressure in the world’s third-largest economy.

The data will be among factors scrutinized by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) when it meets for a two-day policy meeting concluding on Dec. 19.

The year-on-year rise in the Tokyo core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food but includes fuel costs, compared with a median market forecast for a 2.4-percent gain and followed a 2.7-percent increase in October.

The so-called “core core” index that strips away both fresh food and fuel prices – closely watched by the BOJ as a gauge of broader price trends – rose 3.6 percent in November from a year earlier after a 3.8-percent gain in October, government data showed on Tuesday.

The BOJ remains a dovish outlier among global peers, having maintained ultra-loose policy even as major central banks elsewhere raised interest rates aggressively to fight rampant inflation.

With inflation having exceeded the BOJ’s 2 percent inflation target for more than a year, many market players expect the bank to phase out its massive stimulus some time next year with some betting on a shift as early as in January.