Tokyo (awp/afp) – Consumer prices in Japan (excluding fresh produce) rose 2.2% in June year on year, a slight acceleration compared to May, still driven by rising energy prices, according to government data released Friday.
Also excluding energy, consumer prices rose just 1% last month year on year, according to Japan’s Home Affairs Ministry.
The level of inflation in June is in line with the consensus expectations of economists from the Bloomberg agency, and marks a third month in a row above 2% (after 2.1% in April and May), at most high since 2015.
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) on Thursday raised its inflation forecast for the country, now anticipating a rise in consumer prices of 2.3% over the whole of the 2022/23 financial year which began on April 1, against 1.9% previously.
However, it expects that this imported inflation, mainly driven by the surge in energy prices and other raw materials against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine in particular, will not last in Japan, where wage increases are struggling. to keep pace and where the economic recovery remains fragile.
The BoJ thus maintained its ultra-accommodating monetary policy on Thursday, against the tide of the other major central banks, from the United States to Europe, which are faced with much higher inflation.
Japanese inflation has also been amplified by the fall of the yen against the dollar since March, a movement in the exchange rate partly caused by the growing gap between the monetary policies conducted in Japan and the United States, and which makes Japanese imports even more expensive.
“Market speculation about a possible policy adjustment could resurface (in the coming months, editor’s note), but we expect the BoJ to remain accommodative in the absence of demand-driven inflation,” according to a note from ING bank published on Friday.
dpa/al