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Investing.com-- Japanese consumer price index inflation grew slightly more than expected in July, while underlying inflation remained sticky, keeping expectations of more interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan largely in play.
National core CPI, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, grew 3.1 year-on-year in July, government data showed on Friday. The print was just above expectations of 3%, but cooled from the 3.3% seen in the prior month.
A core CPI reading that excludes both fresh food and energy prices remained steady at 3.4% y-o-y in July. The print is closely watched by the BOJ as a gauge of underlying inflation, and was also well above the central bank’s 2% annual target.
Headline CPI inflation eased to 3.1% in July from 3.3% in the prior month.
While Friday’s print did reflect some sustained cooling in Japanese inflation, it still showed domestic prices remaining relatively high, which could in turn spur more interest rate hikes by the BOJ.
Underlying inflation has persistently remained above the BOJ’s annual target for the past three years– a trend that saw the central bank begin a historic tightening of monetary policy in early-2024.
But the BOJ has since raised rates only a limited number of times, amid caution over increased economic headwinds from U.S. trade tariffs.
Still, a stronger-than-expected gross domestic product print for the second quarter spurred bets that the BOJ will have enough headroom to raise rates at least once more this year.