TOKYO- Japan’s November wholesale prices rose 9.3 percent from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, a rate of increase that was almost unchanged from the previous month and showed initial signs of an inflation peak amid easing global commodity prices.
It was the 21st consecutive month to show an annual rise in wholesale prices.
While food and energy costs continued to rise, the data may offer some relief for Japan’s economy, which relies almost entirely on imports for fuel and raw material.
The rise in the corporate goods price index, which measures prices that companies charge each other for goods and services, exceeded market forecasts for a 8.9 percent gain but was slightly below the revised 9.4 percent annual increase seen in October.
The index, at 118.5, reached its highest ever level.
The yen-based import price index in November was 28.2 percent higher than a year earlier, slowing sharply from October’s revised annual surge of 42.3 percent, according to the Bank of Japan (BOJ) data. The currency has rebounded from multi-decade lows, moderating rises in import costs.
“Companies were passing on rising raw material costs for a broad range of goods. But some goods saw the impact of recent easing of global commodity prices,” a BOJ official told a briefing.
Petroleum and coal goods prices were up 0.5 percent in November from a year earlier, slowing from a revised 2.8 percent gain in October, the data showed.
Chemical goods and metal scrap prices also saw moderating price gains, reflecting weakening demand from China, it showed.
Global commodity prices and the weakness of the yen, which boosts the cost of imports, have been pushing up Japan’s wholesale and consumer inflation – a trend that policymakers worry could hurt Japan’s fragile economic recovery.
Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest, shrank less than initially estimated in the third quarter, bolstering a view that it is slowly recovering from COVID-19 doldrums even as major export markets show further signs of weakening.
Separate data showed the economy had recorded its first current account deficit in eight years in October, reflecting high import costs imposed on households and businesses by a decline in the yen’s value to multi-decade lows this year.
The revised 0.8 percent annualized quarterly contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) released by the Cabinet Office on Thursday compared with economists’ median forecast for a 1.1 percent annualized decline in a Reuters poll and an early official estimate of a contraction of 1.2 percent.
The revision was driven by upward change in private inventories and compared with a 4.5 percent annualized quarterly gain in the previous quarter.
Japan’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter as global recession risks, China’s faltering economy, a weak yen and higher import costs hurt consumption and businesses.
The economy may rebound in the current quarter due to easing of supply restrictions on semiconductors and cars, and lifting of COVID-19 border controls, boosting tourism, some analysts say.
However, others are bracing for the global economy to tip into a recession next year, dealing a sharp blow to trade-reliant Asian exporters such as Japan.
