— See Separate Table For Details Of Individual Economist Forecasts
TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core consumer price index for January is
expected to show a 0.2% fall from a year earlier, posting the fourth
consecutive monthly y/y fall after -0.1% in December, according to the
median forecast of economists polled by Market News International.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will release
the CPI data at 0830 JST on Friday, Mar. 2 (2330 GMT Thursday).
The pace of decline in core CPI (excluding perishables) seems to
have accelerated slightly from December as the year-on-year gain in
energy costs slowed in January.
The average retail price of regular gasoline in Japan, which has a
major impact on core CPI, rose only 5.3% in early January from a year
earlier following +8.0% in early December, data released by the Oil
Information Center showed.
Tokyo core CPI for February, which will be released with January
national price data, is forecast to show a 0.4% drop on year, which
would be the 34 straight y/y fall after -0.4% in January.
Price drops are widely expected to continue through the first
several months of 2013 as technological development pushes down retail
prices of consumer electronics while the strong yen lowers import costs.
skodama@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4838 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$]
