The inflation rate in Japan reached 3.6% last October within one year (excluding fresh products), according to data published today, Friday, slightly higher than expected by economists polled by Bloomberg Agency (3.5%), compared to 3% in last September.
Inflation is more moderate (2.5%) if energy prices are not taken into account, but it remains higher than what was recorded last September due to the rise in the prices of other products, especially foodstuffs.
Since last April, inflation in Japan has exceeded the rate set by the central bank as a target (2%, excluding fresh products), but “cost inflation” driven by high energy and food prices does not satisfy the institution, which still believes that conditions have not met to tighten monetary policy in Japan.
The Japanese trade deficit led to a decline in the national gross domestic product in the third quarter by 0.3% from the previous quarter, according to preliminary figures published last Tuesday, but economists believe that the recent rise in the yen and the direction of global energy prices will allow Japan’s trade deficit to decline in the fourth quarter of the year. current.
It is also assumed that inflation will decline from the beginning of 2023, with the start of implementing a measure by the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to reduce Japanese energy bills in January.
At the end of last October, the Bank of Japan raised its inflation estimate to +2.9% for the 2022/23 fiscal year that will end at the end of next March (+1.8% excluding fresh products and energy), but it sees it falling to 1.6% in 2023/24 and remains at this level in 2024/25.
