Wholesale inflation slowed for the first time in three years in fiscal 2023 through March, due largely to government efforts to cut energy costs, with prices of goods traded between companies rising 2.3 percent from a year ago, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
The slowdown from a record 9.5 percent surge in fiscal 2022 came as the BOJ ended its unorthodox monetary easing steps in March after it grew more confident about stable inflation in Japan on the back of a positive cycle of pay and price hikes.
The corporate goods price index came to 119.9, the highest since comparable data became available in 1980.
Wholesale prices affect consumer prices with a lag. The BOJ has said its attainment of 2 percent inflation in a "stable and sustainable" manner has come into view.
For March, wholesale prices rose 0.8 percent from the same month a year earlier, accelerating for the second straight month.
With the fading year-on-year effects of higher import costs that were inflated by a weaker yen, wholesale inflation has remained slightly above zero percent since November.
By items, electricity, city gas and water bills plunged 12.6 percent in fiscal 2023 from the year before when they surged 37.7 percent, as the government has been providing subsidies to reduce gasoline and gas prices.
Iron and steel prices rose 0.9 percent, slowing sharply from a 24.0 percent increase in fiscal 2022, while food and beverages gained 5.8 percent, down from 6.8 percent a year earlier.
The BOJ has been closely watching developments in wholesale prices to gauge how aggressively Japanese firms pass on costs by hiking prices.
