Latest. Bank of Japan board member Toichiro Asada urged caution on the pace of any further rate increases in a speech to local leaders in Nagasaki on Thursday, hours after the producer price release. Asada, who voted against this year’s June and September increases that took the policy rate to 1.25 percent, said the rate is already inside the Bank’s estimated neutral range of slightly above 1 percent to 2.5 percent, that current price increases are not necessarily driven by demand given weak consumption, and that the effect of a rate increase can take a year or more to become clear.
Japan’s producer price index rose 0.7 percent in October from the previous month, the Bank of Japan said in its preliminary Corporate Goods Price Index release, after a revised 0.2 percent fall in September. The index stood at 136.8 (2020 = 100) and was 7.1 percent higher than a year earlier, up from a revised 6.8 percent annual pace in September.
Petroleum and coal products contributed 0.20 percentage points of the monthly rise, chemicals and related products 0.15 points, and electric power, gas and water 0.15 points, partly offset by a fall in agriculture, forestry and fishery products. Import prices rose 2.3 percent in the month on a contract currency basis and 19.2 percent from a year earlier, led by petroleum, coal and natural gas, while export prices rose 0.6 percent on the same basis.