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(Update) Tokyo Core CPI Down 0.4 Pct in June

Posted on: Friday, 1 July 2005, 18:01 CDT

Tokyo, July 1 (Jiji Press)--The core consumer price index for central Tokyo in June dropped 0.4 pct from a year before as telephone and electricity charges declined, the Internal Affairs Ministry said Friday.

The core CPI, excluding fresh food prices, for Tokyo's 23 wards, thus fell for five years and nine months on end. The index also dropped 0.4 pct in May.

The central Tokyo CPI stood at 97.0 in June against 100 for the base year of 2000. It was down 0.1 pct from the previous month.

Compared with June 2004, fixed-phone rates fell 12.2 pct and electricity rates dropped 3.3 pct. Prices of desktop computers sank 34.9 pct and those of notebook PCs were down 31.8 pct, the ministry said.

On the other hand, energy prices increased, reflecting high crude oil prices. Prices of kerosene grew 18.8 pct and those of regular gasoline rose 7.1 pct.

For the whole of Japan, the core CPI in May was unchanged from a year before at 97.9, after falling for seven straight months. The index last posted flat growth in September 2004.

While phone rates, electricity charges and rice prices declined, kerosene and gasoline prices increased. Prices of regular gasoline were up 15.3 pct, the highest growth since July 1980, and those of premium gasoline were up 13.8 pct, the sharpest since the government started disclosing CPI data in January 1996, a ministry official said.

The official said it is uncertain whether the June CPI in Japan will go up because energy prices started pushing up the CPI in June 2004 and its impacts have now been diminishing.END

Source: Jiji Press English News Service

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