Inflation in Tokyo cooled to the slowest pace in over a year, a development that supports the Bank of Japan’s view that price pressures are weakening for now and that it should continue to be cautious about a tightening of policy.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.3% in November from the prior year in the capital, largely due to falling electricity and gas charges and smaller gains in processed food prices, according to the internal affairs ministry's data released Tuesday. Inflation slowed from 2.7% in October, and came in below economists’ forecast of 2.4%.
Tokyo figures are a leading indicator of the national trend and suggest that the country’s price growth also moderated last month.