December PPI (formerly the Corporate Goods Price Index)

+3.1% y/y

  • expected +3.2%, prior +3.6% (revised from +3.5%)

+0.2% m/m

  • expected +0.4%, prior +0.5%, revised from +0.4%

Prices at the wholesale level, what firms are charging each other.

Buried in the release is the 'domestic final good prices', which is a loose tracking of the CPI. It rose 0.9% y/y ... which might very well give the BOJ some encouragement that they are getting closer to their 2% CPI target ... not quite half way though of course.