Japan’s consumer prices see historic decline in December

December had seen Japan’s core consumer prices decelerate at the fastest annual pace in a decade. The drop highly underscored worsening deflationary concerns that, in turn, brought in pressures for the central bank to reinforce its measures against the coronavirus crisis.

The country’s core consumer price index (CPI) recorded a 1.0% decrease in December year-on-year, government data showed. The subdued reading placed just a shade lower than the 1.1% drop predicted by markets. More so, this came as the largest annual decline since September 2010.                                                                                                                  

With the weak figures released on Friday, policymakers were put under intense pressure to come up with better ways without putting any harm to the country’s ailing economy. More so, new virus restrictions are expected to drag services spending and prompt firms to reduce prices.