TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s core consumer price inflation probably accelerated in November, driven by persistently high rice prices and the phasing out of utility subsidies, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
The core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil products but excludes fresh food prices, was expected to have risen 2.6% in November from a year earlier, compared with 2.3% in October, a poll of 18 economists showed.
“On top of higher prices in rice, food and industrial product prices, energy prices were also pushed up as the government trimmed subsidies for electricity and city gas bills,” Mizuho Research & Technologies said in a report.
The internal affairs ministry will release November CPI data on Dec. 20 at 8:30 a.m. (Dec. 19 at 2330 GMT).
The poll also showed exports are expected to have risen 2.8% in November from a year earlier, slowing from a 3.1% increase in October.
Imports were estimated to have expanded 1% from a year earlier, resulting in a deficit of 688.9 billion yen ($4.50 billion). Imports rose 0.4% in October.
“Global trade remained sluggish but the yen’s weakness since mid-September likely boosted the value of exports,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
Machinery orders, a highly volatile but leading indicator of capital spending for the coming six to nine months, probably rose 1.2% in October from the previous month, following a 0.7% drop in September, according to the poll.
The finance ministry will publish the trade data at 8:50 a.m. on Dec. 18 (2350 GMT on Dec. 17), while the Cabinet Office will announce the machinery orders data at 8:50 a.m. on Dec. 16 (2350 GMT on Dec. 15).
($1 = 152.9800 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
