Japan Verbraucherpreise

Japan's annual inflation rate stood at 3.6% in April 2025, unchanged from March while remaining at its lowest print since December. Food prices rose the least in four months (6.5% vs 7.4% in March) even as rice costs jumped 94.8% yoy, hitting a new record for the 7th straight month due to poor harvests and rising demand from record tourist numbers. Price growth also eased for clothing (2.7% vs 3.0%) and household items (4.1% vs 4.5%). Cost of education fell much steeper (-5.6% vs -1.2%). In contrast, inflation was stable for transport (at 2.7%) while accelerating for housing (1.0% vs 0.8%), healthcare (2.2% vs 2.0%), recreation (2.7% vs 2.0%), communications (1.1% vs 1.0%), and miscellaneous items (1.3% vs 1.1%). Prices of electricity (13.5% vs 8.7% ) and gas (4.4% vs 2.4%) rose the most in three months, as the impact of government subsidies faded. Core inflation climbed to an over 2-year high of 3.5% from 3.2% in March. Monthly, the CPI rose 0.1%, easing from a 0.3% gain in March.