Consumer prices in Japan rise for first time in a year

Tokyo

DATA published on Friday shows that consumer prices in Japan rose for the first time in the space of 13 months during January, offering a glimmer of hope for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Abenomics policies and for a Bank of Japan that has been struggling to achieve an inflation target

The 0.1 per cent rise in the nationwide core consumer price index (CPI) exceeded economists' expectations of a flat trend, due mainly to a rise in international energy prices rather than an increase in domestic demand within Japan itself.