Japan national CPI core, ex-food, slowed to 0.7% yoy in April, down from 0.9% yoy and below expectation of 0.8% yoy.
That’s the second month of decline and it moved further away from BoJ’s 2% target. It’s also the lowest level since September 2017 and off recent cyclical high of 1.0% set in February.
Overall CPI slowed to 0.6% yoy, down from 1.1% yoy. Ex-food, ex-energy CPI slowed to just 0.4% yoy, down from 0.5% yoy.
Recently, BoJ just dropped the time frame for meeting the 2% inflation target. And it maintained the stance to continue with ultra loose monetary easing. While recent surge in oil price could help lift overall and ex-food CPI ahead, the core-core CPI remained worryingly weak.
