Japan's core CPI hits highest level since 1981 in December

TOKYO - Japan's core consumer prices gained 4.0 percent in December from a year earlier, marking the highest level since 1981, owing to soaring prices for energy and food, the government said in a report on Friday.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, while also marking the largest growth in over 40 years, the core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food items, has stayed above the Bank of Japan's 2 percent inflation target for the seventh straight month.

Higher prices for electricity and other energy costs, as well as food, saw the core CPI elevated, the statistics bureau said, with food prices climbing 7.4 percent in December, while energy prices leaped 15.2 percent.

Electricity soared 21.3 percent in the recording month, while city gas leaped 33.3 percent, the ministry said.

Gasoline was up 1.6 percent, while kerosene prices rose 4.7 percent in the recording period, according to the ministry.

Japan's core-core CPI, meanwhile, excluding both fresh food and energy prices, rose 3.0 percent, the highest since 1991, the statistics bureau's data showed.

For 2022, core CPI rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier, the data also showed, which when the effects of prior consumption tax hikes are taken away, marked the fastest pace since 1991, the ministry also said.