DPA
Tokyo, March 28 (DPA) Japan’s core consumer price index (CPI) rose at its fastest pace in more than 10 years in February due to high oil and food prices, the government said Friday. The nation’s CPI grew one percent in February compared to the same month a year before to 100.4 against 100 for the base year of 2005, beating the market’s forecast of 0.9 percent, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

The February figure was higher than a 0.8 percent rise in January.

The overall CPI, including fresh food prices, rose one percent to 100.5.

Excluding food and energy prices, the CPI fell 0.1 percent.

“We can never say this price hike is a good rise as the economy is entering a lull and wages are not increasing,” said Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota.

“Consumer confidence has been deteriorating. We are concerned about the impact” of those developments, she said.

Japan’s average household spending remained almost unchanged in February from a year before at 275,827 yen ($2,777), the ministry said.

For wage-earnings households, the average monthly income decreased 0.1 percent to 476,282 yen.

Japan’s jobless rate in seasonally-adjusted terms rose to 3.9 percent in February from the previous month, the government said.

The number of jobless people decreased 40,000 from a year earlier to 2.66 million.

There were 97 jobs available for every 100 job seekers.

The February unemployment rate was better than the average market expectation of 3.8 percent according to a Kyodo News survey.
DPA