Japan Aug Corp Goods Price Drop Slows to -1.8% Y/Y

— Japan Aug Corp Goods Prices -1.8% Y/Y; MNI Median Fcast: -1.9%
— Japan Aug CGPI Posts 5th Straight Y/Y Drop; July Revised -2.2%

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s corporate goods price index posted the fifth
straight year-on-year fall in August, down 1.8%, but the pace of decline
slowed from a revised -2.2% in July thanks to smaller drops in gasoline
and nonferrous metal prices, data released Wednesday by the Bank of
Japan showed.

The August drop was slightly smaller than the median forecast for a
1.9% fall in a MNI survey of economists.

After hitting a record 8.5% drop on year in August 2009, CGPI
reached a recent peak of +2.2% in July and August 2011.

From the previous month, CGPI rose 0.3% in August, marking the
first month-on-month rise in four months, led by higher costs of
electricity, gasoline, heating oil and petrochemical products that are
used to produce plastics and resins.

The number of CGPI items whose prices rose from a year earlier
totaled 229 in August, or 27.9% of the basket, while the number of items
whose prices fell came to 509, or 61.9%.

It is the sixth straight month that the number of decliners has
exceeded that of gainers.

tokyo@mni-news.com
** MNI Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-6860-4822 **

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