Japanese nation-wide inflation remains subdued

FXStreet (Bali) - Japanese inflation numbers continue to show little progress one year after the unpopular sales tax hike in the country. While the national CPI reads did actually see some minor upticks, the Tokyo area inflation (core) remained quite subdued.

The Bank of Japan has estimated that the sales tax hike last year contributed to a 1.7% increase to the annual inflation rate in April 2014, and 2% from the following month, thus one still needs to discount that from the nation-wide figures in March before the added 1.7 and 2% increases are removed in next month's nation-wide figures.

Tokyo inflation numbers, since they came for the month of April, the sales tax hike effect has already been discounted.

Headlines

Japan Tokyo CPI ex Food, Energy (YoY) dipped from previous 1.7% to 0% in April

Japan Tokyo CPI ex Fresh Food (YoY) below expectations (0.5%) in April: Actual (0.4%)

Japan Overall Household Spending (YoY) came in at -10.6%, above expectations (-12.1%) in March

Japan National Consumer Price Index (YoY) up to 2.3% in March from previous 2.2%

Japan Tokyo Consumer Price Index (YoY): 0.7% (April) vs previous 2.3%

Japan Jobs/applicants ratio meets forecasts (1.15) in March

Japan Unemployment Rate below forecasts (3.5%) in March: Actual (3.4%)