Japan Wholesale Prices Rise 1.3 Percent in 2013

Japan’s wholesale prices rose 1.3 percent in 2013 after declining 0.9 percent the previous year due to a weaker yen, which pushed up prices of oil and coal products, the Bank of Japan said Thursday.

The index of corporate goods prices stood at 101.9 against the 2010 base of 100, the central bank said in a preliminary report.

Prices of petroleum and coal products climbed 8.8 percent from a year earlier, and electricity, gas and water bills grew 8.4 percent due to higher import costs of such natural resources as the yen depreciated about 20 percent from a year before, a BOJ official said.

Also contributing to the overall price rise were prices of agriculture, forestry and fishery products, which rose 3.5 percent, due partly to higher import costs of pork and tight poultry supply caused by the summer heat waves that affected chicken farming.

Lumber and wood products prices were up 8.7 percent due to increased housing starts in both Japan and the United States, the official said.

Meanwhile, prices of electrical machinery and equipment fell 1.8 percent due to fierce price competition between manufacturers.

Japan’s export prices increased 11.6 percent from the previous year for the first rise in six years in yen terms but were down 1.9 percent on a contract currency basis.

Import prices gained 14.5 percent in yen terms but fell 1.7 percent on a contract currency basis.

via Mainichi

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza