TOKYO- Japan’s core consumer price inflation probably accelerated in November, driven by persistently high rice prices and the phasing out of utility subsidies, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, was expected to have risen 2.6 percent in November from a year earlier, compared with 2.3 percent in October, a poll of 18 economists showed.
“On top of higher prices in rice, food and industrial product prices, energy prices were also pushed up as the government trimmed subsidies for electricity and city gas bills,” Mizuho Research & Technologies said in a report.
The poll also showed exports are expected to have risen 2.8 percent in November from a year earlier, slowing from a 3.1 percent increase in October.
Imports were estimated to have expanded 1 percent from a year earlier, resulting in a deficit of 688.9 billion yen ($4.50 billion). Imports rose 0.4 percent in October.
“Global trade remained sluggish but the yen’s weakness since mid-September likely boosted the value of exports,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. Machinery orders, a highly volatile but leading indicator of capital spending for the coming six to nine months, probably rose 1.2 percent in October from the previous month, following a 0.7 percent drop in September, according to the poll.
