Japan’s services prices recover; COVID-19 measures dim outlook

Japan saw an increase in services prices in March as advertising and transportation fees advanced, data showed on Monday. The jump suggests that the country’s economy is faring better now than last year when the pandemic wrought disruptions.

The services producer price index gauges how much charge companies ask each other for services and recorded a 0.7% jump in March from a year earlier. The figure from the Bank of Japan came to be the first-ever hike the index had recorded in six months.

While the base effect of last year’s contraction partly supported prices, television and internet advertisement fees were also upon demand from cellphone carriers and other related services. Despite this, services prices stood weakly as the coronavirus pandemic heavily weighed on consumption.