Japanese Inflation Slows in September, Core Prices Print Flat

[DailyFx]

The pace of Japanese inflation slowed in September as the Consumer Price Indexprinted at 2.1%, down from 2.3% in the preceding month. That prices grew at all owed squarely to lingering price pressures from record commodity prices over the summer. Indeed, the core reading which excludes feed and energy stalled at 0.0%. Headline consumer prices are likely to decrease substantially into the second half of the year as sharply lower crude oil filters into the broad economy. The Bank of Japan has been adamant in asserting that their primary focus remains sagging economic growth rather than inflation. To that effect, bond yields forecast interest rates to remain unchanged until at least the fourth quarter. The world’s second largest economy has slipped into recession a negative GDP reading in the second quarter. Yesterday, we saw the Trade Balance fall into deficit on dwindling exports while the newly appointed Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa announced the possibility of fiscal stimulus, saying the government will consider cutting taxes and increasing spending.


For a complete listing of this week's data releases, please see the DailyFX Economic Calendar.