Japan wholesale inflation jumps to 4.9% as import costs surge
The post Japan wholesale inflation jumps to 4.9% as import costs surge appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. According to a Bank of Japan (BOJ) report issued Friday May 15, Japan’s wholesale prices jumped 4.9% year-on-year in April. This number exceeds the 3.0% gain economists had forecast and nearly doubled March’s revised 2.9%, as the Iran conflict drove a sharp rise in oil and petrochemical import costs, Reuters reported. The corporate goods price index (CGPI), which tracks what companies charge each other for goods, caught markets off guard. But beyond the headlines, yen-denominated import prices were even more revealing. Import prices rose 17.5% in April from a year earlier, nearly double its pace in March at 8.0%. The cause: The war in Iran and the closed Strait of Hormuz. The resulting effect has seen crude prices spike, the dollar trading higher against the yen, driving up costs for Japan’s fuel-dependent economy. Japanese manufacturers and retailers are passing cost increases t