Wholesale prices in Japan surged 9.7% in September from a year earlier as a sharp fall in the yen inflated import prices for energy and raw materials, Bank of Japan data showed Thursday.
Japan saw the price of goods traded between companies jump by a record 9.8% in April, with the year-on-year figure staying above 9% throughout 2022 as Russia's war against Ukraine and the yen's rapid weakening add to inflationary pressure.
Wholesale inflation, which affects consumer prices with a lag, rose for the 19th straight month, threatening to hurt corporate profits. A growing number of Japanese firms have already been passing on higher costs.
Import prices soared 48.0% from a year earlier in yen terms. The Japanese currency has slumped to its lowest level in over two decades relative to the U.S$., reflecting the widening interest rate differentials between the two nations.
Export prices, meanwhile, rose at a slower pace of 20.1%.
Prices of coal and petroleum products jumped 14.7% while steel prices surged 26.1%. Electricity, city gas and water bills gained 38.8%.
The core consumer price index excluding volatile fresh food items has topped the Bank of Japan's 2% target in recent months, though the central bank is in no hurry to tweak its ultralow rate policy on the view that the recent inflation will not last.