Wholesale prices nationwide edged up in March from a year earlier for the first increase in three years and eight months, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday in a preliminary report.
The prices, measured by the central bank's corporate goods price index, registered 95.5 against the base of 100 for 2000, up 0.2 percent from the year-before level. In February, the CGPI was unchanged from a year earlier, although it rose 0.3 percent from the previous year.
It is the first time since July 2000 that the key wholesale price index has registered a year-on-year rise, signaling that deflationary pressures have been easing in inter-business transactions amid robust exports to other parts of Asia and increasing domestic demand, the BOJ said.