Japan's key price indicator slipped in March after hitting 1 percent in February, yet the underlying trend is seen remaining intact as Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda begins his second term vowing to achieve 2 percent inflation.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 0.9 percent in March from a year earlier. Stripping out fresh food and energy, prices climbed 0.5 percent. Overall prices gained 1.1 percent. Nationwide, energy prices rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier in March, contributing 0.42 percentage points to price gains.
Excluding fresh food, inflation for the fiscal year that ended in March 2018 was 0.7 percent. While that's the highest since 2014, it's below the BOJ's forecast of 0.8 percent.