By Leika Kihara
TOKYO- Japan’s wholesale inflation jumped in May at the fastest annual pace in nine months, data showed on Wednesday, a sign the weak yen was adding upward pressure on prices by pushing up the cost of raw material imports.
The data complicates the Bank of Japan’s decision on how soon to raise interest rates, as price rises driven by cost pressures could cool consumption and dampen the chances of achieving the kind of demand-driven inflation it wants to see before further phasing out stimulus, analysts say.
“Consumer inflation may not slow much as wholesale price rises re-accelerate, and energy prices are seen rising sharply towards this summer” as government subsidies to curb utility bills end in June, said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research.
“But the BOJ will need to wait for wages to rise and help consumption recover” before raising rates again, he added.
The corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price companies charge each other for their goods and services, rose 2.4 percent in May from a year earlier, BOJ data showed, exceeded a median market forecast for a 2.0 percent gain.
It followed a 1.1 percent gain in April, accelerating for a fourth straight month, with the increase driven by higher prices for utilities, petroleum and chemical goods as well as nonferrous metals, the data showed.
An index measuring the yen-based import goods prices rose 6.9 percent in May from a year earlier, accelerating from a 6.6 percent gain in April, a sign the yen’s recent declines were pushing up the cost of raw material imports.
The data will likely be among factors the BOJ board will scrutinize when it meets for a two-day policy meeting ending on Friday. The central bank is widely expected to keep unchanged its short-term interest rate target at a 0 percent to 0.1 percent range.
