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TOKYO : Core consumer prices in Japan's capital in November rose 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, data showed on Friday, staying above the central bank's 2 per cent target and keeping alive market expectations for a near-term interest rate hike. The data will be among factors the central bank will scrutinise at its next policy meeting next month, when some market players expect it to raise short-term interest rates from the current 0.
25 per cent. The year-on-year increase in the Tokyo core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food costs, compared with a median market forecast for a 2.1 per cent gain and accelerated from a 1.
8 per cent rise in October, government data showed. Another index that strips away both fresh food and fuel costs, which is closely watched by the BOJ as a better gauge of demand-driven inflation, rose 1.9 per cent in November from a year earlier after a 1.
8 per cent increase in October. The BOJ ended negative interest rates in March and raised its short-term policy rate to 0.25 per cent in July on the view Japan was making steady progress towards durably achieving its 2 per cent inflation target.
Governor Kazuo Ueda has said the BOJ will keep raising rates if inflation remains on track to stably hit 2 per cent as it projects. Just over half of economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ to raise rates again at its Dec. 18-19 meeting.
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