Japan Nov consumer prices index seen steady

Japan’s nationwide core consumer price index (CPI) likely rose 0.8 per cent in November from a year ago, unchanged from October’s reading, a Reuters poll found on Friday.

The country’s consumer prices were expected to rise fractionally for an 11th straight month in November, the poll of 19 economists found.

The rate of increase in utility costs slowed down, but the cost of oil products such as gasoline supported core consumer prices, analysts said.

Core consumer prices in Tokyo, available a month before the nationwide data, were projected to be up 0.7 per cent in December from a year earlier versus a 0.6 per cent annual increase in November.

“The contribution from energy prices to core CPI will likely stay steady in this fiscal year but it will peak in fiscal 2018,” Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, said.

The internal affairs ministry will release consumer prices data at 8:30 a.m. Tokyo time on Dec. 26 (2330 GMT on Dec.25)

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday.

The poll also found industrial output was likely to have grown 0.5 per cent in November from the previous month, up for a second straight month.

Factory output is forecast to remain solid given buoyant business sentiment and robust external demand, analysts said.

The trade ministry will announce factory output data at 8:50 am Tokyo time on Dec. 28 (2350 GMT on Dec. 27)

The poll saw the jobless rate steady at a 23-year low of 2.8 per cent in November and the jobs-to-applicants ratio at 1.56, which would be the highest level since January 1974.

Household spending is forecast to have risen an annual 0.5 per cent in November and retail sales were seen likely to grow 1.2 per cent on the year.

The internal affairs ministry will release the jobs market and household spending data on Dec. 26, while the trade ministry will publish the retail sales figures on Dec. 28.