Overview
- The Bank of Japan published the first “Indicators for Core CPI” on Thursday, and it will update the series each month two days after the official nationwide CPI release.
- The new gauge shows core consumer prices up 2.2% year over year in February once it removes special factors, outpacing the government’s 1.6% benchmark core CPI.
- On the BOJ’s method, core-core inflation, which also excludes energy, rose 2.7% compared with the government’s 2.5% figure.
- The series strips out policy distortions such as energy and education subsidies and tax changes, and it adds tools like a trimmed mean, weighted median, mode, and a diffusion index to capture price breadth.
- Analysts say the results strengthen the case for more rate hikes by signaling demand-driven inflation above the 2% goal, a path that could lift borrowing costs for households and businesses if the BOJ tightens again.