Japan's corporate services prices rose at the fastest annual pace in eight months in May, data showed on Thursday, adding to growing signs the world's No. 3 economy is gradually emerging from last year's devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the gain was due largely to the base effect of last year's slump, rising hotel and transportation fees showed a resumption of economic activity and rising raw material costs were keeping Japan from sliding back into sustained deflation.
"The impact of state of emergency curbs wasn't as large as the same period last year," Shigeru Shimizu, head of the BOJ's price statistics division, told a briefing. "Some regions saw tourists return during the Golden Week holidays."