Japan’s key inflation measure weakened last month, offering support for the Bank of Japan’s view that price growth is still too feeble to consider pulling back its stimulus measures.

Growth in consumer prices excluding fresh food slowed to 0.2% in January from a year earlier, compared with 0.5% the previous month, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.

Economists had expected a weakening to 0.3%, as an earlier boost from higher hotel charges dropped out of the calculations, but many of them also see price growth picking up again and moving closer to the BOJ’s 2% target in the coming months.

The dent in price gains underscores Japan’s status as an outlier amid global inflationary pressures that are prompting central bank action overseas. The latest reading could help cool for the time being recent speculation that the BOJ might consider adjusting policy even before Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda finishes his term next year.

"Today’s figures will make it easier for the BOJ to communicate the need for persistence with monetary easing, but it will get trickier when the consumer price index jumps from April,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

Kuroda has repeatedly reiterated his view that there is no need to discuss normalizing policy with prices still so distant from the 2% target.

The central bank underlined its commitment to sticking with its stimulus framework earlier this week when it offered to buy government bonds at a fixed rate to keep yields below a ceiling over its zero target. The BOJ targets the 10-year yield as part of its efforts to generate inflation.

Still, the speculation over possible changes is likely to rumble on as other central banks make hawkish pivots in their policy direction.

Prices in Japan are expected to jump in the spring when the impact of slashed phone fees fades out of the index, another factor that will likely keep market players chattering.

"We expect core inflation to pick up slightly in February. Elevated energy prices and a weaker yen are likely to support the core inflation gauge,” said Bloomberg Economics' Asia Economist Team.

The release showed that energy costs jumped 17.9% for their biggest increase in 41 years. They contributed 1.2 percentage point to overall prices, an indication of how important climbing oil markets have been in driving up Japan’s inflation readings. Oil prices hit their highest since 2014 this week.

Gains in hotel fees, a key price booster in recent months, eased to less than 1% in January, sapping overall momentum. Accommodation costs had been surging due to year-earlier comparisons with a period when government-initiated discounts for the travel industry were still in effect.

Last year’s sharp cuts to mobile phone fees continued to push down the overall index by around 1.5 percentage point.

Norinchukin’s Minami is among an increasing number of economists who see a good chance of the price data hitting around the BOJ’s 2% price target in spring and hovering around that level to fuel market expectations of an unwinding of stimulus.

"The question is whether the BOJ will keep its easing commitment for the rest of the year without any change when actual data will more vividly show inflation and households could be increasingly expressing their discomfort with the cost of living,” Minami said.

Kuroda has said the central bank is looking for sustainable inflation backed by wage growth, a combination needed to overcome an entrenched deflationary mindset.

The dislike of price increases among companies and consumers was illustrated this week when a big supermarket chain dropped the products of a diaper-maker because it had pushed up its prices.

Still, households and companies are feeling the pinch of higher energy prices, a factor that could fuel voter dissatisfaction ahead of national elections in the summer.

"Kuroda insists the BOJ isn’t considering an exit at all, but the current global inflation gives him an opportunity to adjust his tone because prices are actually rising,” said Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at Daiwa Securities Co. "I’m not sure if it makes sense for the BOJ to go against the global trend.”