A customer visits a store at Togoshi Ginza shopping street in Tokyo on January 23, 2025.Â
Philip Fong | Afp | Getty Images
Japan’s inflation rate in January climbed to 4%, hitting its highest level since January 2023.
Core inflation — which excludes prices of fresh food — rose to 3.2%, beating economists’ expectations of 3.1%, according to a Reuters poll. This figure was the highest since June 2023.
The so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy and is closely monitored by the BOJ, climbed slightly to 2.5%.
Immediately after the data release, the yen marginally strengthened to trade at 149.59 against the dollar.
The data comes after the country’s GDP growth beat expectations on a quarter-on-quarter and annualized basis, rising 0.7% and 2.8% respectively.
However, full-year GDP growth for 2024 slowed to 0.1%, a sharp fall from the 1.5% growth seen in 2023.