TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s corporate service price index fell 0.6% in
February, posting year-on-year drops for nearly three and a half years
since October 2008, following a downwardly revised -0.4% in January,
Bank of Japan data released on Tuesday showed.
The decease in February, the largest since -0.9% in June last year,
was mainly caused by bigger year-on-year declines in costs for
advertising services and transportation by sea and land.
But the total CSPI, which stood at 95.7 in February against 100 in
the 2005 base year, was up 0.1% from the previous month, posting the
first m/m gain in five months after falling 0.6% in January.
In last month’s report, the BOJ said the CSPI fell 0.2% y/y in
January, marking the first year-on-year fall in two months following
+0.1% in December, but these figures were revised respectively to -0.4%
and -0.1%, thus leading to a long stretch of drops.
The BOJ usually revises CSPI figures twice a year, in March and
September.
Meanwhile, core CSPI excluding international transportation, a
measure free of volatile factors, was down 0.6% from a year earlier in
February, after falling a revised 0.5% in January. The index has posted
a drop every month since November 2008.
The downward pressure on prices has generally eased since total
CSPI posted a record drop of -3.8% in August 2009, which was the largest
decline since the BOJ began compiling CSPI data in January 1985.
The corporate services price index tracks prices for a wide range
of corporate services, ranging from finance and insurance charges to the
cost of shipping goods by road rail, air or sea.
tokyo@marketnews.com
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