ID :
65169
Wed, 06/10/2009 - 21:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/65169
The shortlink copeid
May wholesale prices fall 5.4%, fastest pace in over 22 years
TOKYO, June 10 Kyodo -
Japanese wholesale prices in May dropped 5.4 percent from a year earlier, the
biggest fall in over 22 years, in the wake of sharp drops in oil and some other
commodity prices from their high levels a year earlier, as well as diminished
demand amid the recession, data from the Bank of Japan showed Wednesday.
The prices, gauged by the central bank's corporate goods price index, stood at
103.0 against the base of 100 for the year 2005, the BOJ said in a preliminary
report.
The fall in the headline reading was the largest since March 1987, when it also
logged a 5.4 percent drop. It was also greater than the average market forecast
of a 5.0 percent fall in a Kyodo News survey.
Contributing the most to the decline was petroleum and coal products, whose
prices plunged 38.9 percent from a year earlier when crude oil price was
heading toward a record high.
Prices of nonferrous metals also dropped 29.7 percent and those of chemicals
and related products dropped 9.6 percent.
Compared with a month earlier, prices of gasoline and oil-related products went
up reflecting recent rises in crude oil prices, but slower demand amid the
global economic slump has recently started dragging down producer prices, a BOJ
official said.
''Final demand remained sluggish, continuing to contribute to price-cutting
moves'' in a wide variety of products, he said, pointing to lower prices of
general machinery and equipment, such as amusement machines.
Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute said Japan
is heading toward what he terms a ''home-made type of deflation'' which chiefly
reflects weakness in the domestic economy, rather than oil price fluctuations.
''I expect the size of fall in wholesale prices to expand beyond 6 percent in
around August and September,'' Shinke said, adding that a year-on-year growth
in wholesale prices is unlikely to come before the end of 2010.
On a month-on-month basis, wholesale prices were down 0.4 percent from April,
marking the ninth straight month of decline, the longest falling streak since
January 2002, when they fell for the 11th straight month.
Japanese consumer prices, excluding volatile fresh food prices, fell for a
second month in April.
The BOJ expects wholesale prices to fall 7.5 percent in fiscal 2009 through
next March and consumer prices to drop 1.5 percent for the same business year.
BOJ Policy Board member Hidetoshi Kamezaki last week promoted awareness about
the price trend, saying that if the economic recovery does not take place in
line with the central bank's main scenario and there is a further shortage of
demand, the situation ''may lead to a deflationary spiral.'' ''It is very
dangerous,'' he said.
Import prices were down 28.5 percent year-on-year in yen terms, the biggest
slide since January 1987 and slipped 23.9 percent in terms of contract
currencies.
Export prices lost 11.6 percent in terms of the Japanese currency and fell 5.0
percent on a contract currencies basis.
==Kyodo
Japanese wholesale prices in May dropped 5.4 percent from a year earlier, the
biggest fall in over 22 years, in the wake of sharp drops in oil and some other
commodity prices from their high levels a year earlier, as well as diminished
demand amid the recession, data from the Bank of Japan showed Wednesday.
The prices, gauged by the central bank's corporate goods price index, stood at
103.0 against the base of 100 for the year 2005, the BOJ said in a preliminary
report.
The fall in the headline reading was the largest since March 1987, when it also
logged a 5.4 percent drop. It was also greater than the average market forecast
of a 5.0 percent fall in a Kyodo News survey.
Contributing the most to the decline was petroleum and coal products, whose
prices plunged 38.9 percent from a year earlier when crude oil price was
heading toward a record high.
Prices of nonferrous metals also dropped 29.7 percent and those of chemicals
and related products dropped 9.6 percent.
Compared with a month earlier, prices of gasoline and oil-related products went
up reflecting recent rises in crude oil prices, but slower demand amid the
global economic slump has recently started dragging down producer prices, a BOJ
official said.
''Final demand remained sluggish, continuing to contribute to price-cutting
moves'' in a wide variety of products, he said, pointing to lower prices of
general machinery and equipment, such as amusement machines.
Yoshiki Shinke, senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute said Japan
is heading toward what he terms a ''home-made type of deflation'' which chiefly
reflects weakness in the domestic economy, rather than oil price fluctuations.
''I expect the size of fall in wholesale prices to expand beyond 6 percent in
around August and September,'' Shinke said, adding that a year-on-year growth
in wholesale prices is unlikely to come before the end of 2010.
On a month-on-month basis, wholesale prices were down 0.4 percent from April,
marking the ninth straight month of decline, the longest falling streak since
January 2002, when they fell for the 11th straight month.
Japanese consumer prices, excluding volatile fresh food prices, fell for a
second month in April.
The BOJ expects wholesale prices to fall 7.5 percent in fiscal 2009 through
next March and consumer prices to drop 1.5 percent for the same business year.
BOJ Policy Board member Hidetoshi Kamezaki last week promoted awareness about
the price trend, saying that if the economic recovery does not take place in
line with the central bank's main scenario and there is a further shortage of
demand, the situation ''may lead to a deflationary spiral.'' ''It is very
dangerous,'' he said.
Import prices were down 28.5 percent year-on-year in yen terms, the biggest
slide since January 1987 and slipped 23.9 percent in terms of contract
currencies.
Export prices lost 11.6 percent in terms of the Japanese currency and fell 5.0
percent on a contract currencies basis.
==Kyodo
