Wholesale prices in Japan surged 9.7 percent in September from a year earlier as a sharp fall in the yen inflated import prices for energy and raw materials, Bank of Japan data showed Thursday.
Japan saw the price of goods traded between companies jump by a record 9.8 percent in April, with the year-on-year figure staying above 9 percent throughout 2022 as Russia's war against Ukraine and the yen's rapid weakening add to inflationary pressure.
Wholesale inflation, which affects consumer prices with a lag, rose for the 19th straight month, threatening to hurt corporate profits. A growing number of Japanese firms have already been passing on higher costs.
Import prices soared 48.0 percent from a year earlier in yen terms. The Japanese currency has slumped to its lowest level in over two decades relative to the U.S. dollar, reflecting the widening interest rate differentials between the two nations.
Export prices, meanwhile, rose at a slower pace of 20.1 percent.
Prices of coal and petroleum products jumped 14.7 percent while steel prices surged 26.1 percent. Electricity, city gas and water bills gained 38.8 percent.
The core consumer price index excluding volatile fresh food items has topped the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target in recent months, though the central bank is in no hurry to tweak its ultralow rate policy on the view that the recent inflation will not last.
