Japan will see another wave of price hikes at the start of the new business year from April 1 as higher raw material costs eat into company margins, dealing yet another blow to consumers already facing inflation rates that have outpaced wage growth.
Rising prices are hurting Japanese consumers, especially young people, and around 64 trillion yen ($498 billion) in excess savings accumulated over the COVID-19 pandemic years have done little to support consumption, the Cabinet Office says.
Wholesale prices in Japan gained 10.2 percent in December, marking double-digit growth year over year again, as a weaker yen continued to inflate import costs of raw materials, Bank of Japan data show.
Wholesale prices in Japan surged 9.7 percent in September from a year earlier as a sharp fall in the yen inflated import prices for energy and raw materials, Bank of Japan data shows.
Energy prices and a weak yen sent core consumer prices in Tokyo 2.8 percent higher in September from a year earlier, the fastest pace of increase in over three decades when excluding the effects of tax hikes, government data show.