Overview

• Tokyo’s core consumer price index rose 3.1% year-on-year in June, down from 3.6% in May and below economists’ forecasts of a 3.3% gain.
• Electricity price increases cooled to 5.3% in June from 10.8% in May, while natural gas and fuel oil gains also slowed.
• Governor Kazuo Ueda and board member Naoki Tamura have signaled readiness to lift interest rates further if wage growth bolsters consumption and inflation pressures persist.
• Japan’s jobless rate held at 2.5% in May and retail sales climbed 2.2% year-on-year, missing consensus estimates and suggesting mixed demand
• The government has extended gasoline subsidies and tapped emergency rice reserves, and rice price growth eased to 90.6% in June from 93.7% in May