Consumer prices in Tokyo in 2000 logged the largest decline on record, 1 percent on a preliminary basis, the central government said Tuesday.
The consumer price index for Tokyo's 23 wards -- an early indicator of price trends for the rest of the country -- came to 100.7 against the base of 100 in 1995, the first time it has dropped two years in a row, the Management and Coordination Agency said.
The index fell in 1995 for the first time since comparative data became available in 1971, leveled off in 1996, and rose 1.3 percent in 1997 and 0.8 percent in 1998 on the back of the government's 1997 consumption tax hike. It then fell 0.4 percent last year, the government said.
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