Wholesale prices in Japan, excluding the impact of last year's consumption tax hike, fell 2.1 percent in March from a year earlier, the Bank of Japan said Monday.
The index of prices for corporate goods slid for the fifth straight month to 100.6 against the 2010 base of 100, following a revised 2.4 percent decrease in February, the BOJ said in a preliminary report.
Including the effect of last April's 3-percentage-point consumption tax hike to 8 percent, the country's wholesale prices rose 0.7 percent year on year to 103.5, the central bank said.
Prices for petroleum and coal products, which depend on energy imports, dropped 20.9 percent including the impact of the tax hike. Those for chemical and related products, typically subject to oil prices, slid 5.0 percent.
Prices for imports dropped 8.1 percent and exports rose 3.6 percent in March from a year earlier in yen terms.
On a monthly basis, the wholesale prices index including the tax hike impact rose 0.3 percent in March from the previous month. It had inched down a revised 0.1 percent in February.
In the 2014 financial year ending in March, excluding the impact of the tax hike, wholesale prices decreased 0.1 percent on average from the year prior to 102.3. Including the tax hike's impact, the index rose 2.8 percent to 105.3.
Prices for imports in the 2014 financial year rose by an average of 0.2 percent from fiscal 2013, while exports rose 2.9 percent.