Japan‘s core consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in March from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.
The core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, compared with economists’ median estimate for a 0.3 percent annual gain.
Stripping away the effect of fresh food and energy, consumer prices fell 0.1 percent in March from a year ago.
Core consumer prices in Tokyo, available a month before the nationwide data, fell 0.1 percent in April from a year earlier, versus a 0.2 percent annual fall seen by analysts in a Reuters poll.
As well, data showed Japanese household spending fell 1.3 percent in March from a year earlier in price-adjusted real terms, government data showed on Friday, compared with the median forecast for a 0.3 percent decline.
And Japan’s jobless rate held steady at 2.8 percent in March and the availability of jobs rose to the highest since November 1990, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed on Friday. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate compared with economists’ median forecast of 2.9 percent.
