Tokyo, Dec. 18, (dpa/GNA) – Consumer prices in Japan dropped 0.9 per cent from a year earlier in November, marking the biggest decline in over 10 years due to a domestic travel subsidy program and falling energy prices, government data showed on Friday.
Accommodation fees plummeted 34.4 per cent from a year earlier after the government launched the travel promotion campaign in July to reboot the tourism industry and local economies hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, a recent massive spike in coronavirus cases prompted Prime Minister Yoshide Suga’s government to suspend the program from December 28 to January 11.
The core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food, stood at 101.3 against a base of 100 for 2015, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The sharp drop in inflation delivered a severe blow to Suga’s government as it was far off the 2-per-cent inflation target set by the Bank of Japan more than seven years ago.
The central bank started to introduce aggressive monetary easing steps in 2013 to stimulate the economy and combat stubborn deflation.
The bank said in October it expects consumer prices to decline 0.6 per cent in the current financial year through March 2021, downgraded from a 0.5-per-cent fall predicted in July.
GNA