Wholesale prices rose for the 20th month in a row in October, climbing 1.9 percent from the same month a year ago due to high oil prices, the Bank of Japan said in a preliminary report Friday.
The prices, gauged by the BOJ's corporate goods price index, came to 98.5 against the base of 100 for 2000, the central bank said.
On a month-to-month basis, wholesale prices edged up 0.2 percent from September, stretching the uptrend to four straight months.
The market sees the upward price trend as a sign that the economy may soon pull out of deflation.