Fiscal 2006 Coporate Goods Price Index

April 12, 2007
By Ken Worsley

Today the Bank of Japan released its report on Japan’s fiscal 2006 corporate good price index. In terms of domestic corporate goods, if you’re in the business of selling nonferrous metals (+41.6%), scrap & waste (+37.6%) or petroleum & coal products (+10.6%), it must have been a good year.

On the other hand, electrical machinery & equipment dealers (-2.3%), precision instrument sellers (-0.5%), Transportation equipment providers (-0.2%) and agricultural, forestry and fisheries peddlers (-1.2%) are bound to not be so pleased with the results. Those four were the only categories showing a decline in prices for fiscal 2006.

Notable is that in fiscal 2006, wholesale prices climbed 2.8%, showing their sharpest rise in 26 years. At the height of the asset bubble in 1989, wholesale prices posted a 2.7% gain. The BOJ attributes the increase in last year’s prices party to surging prices in nonferrous metals and crude oil.

March 2006 wholesale prices increased 2.0% from the same month a year earlier, increasing for the 37th straight month.

Filed Under Bank of Japan, Supply & Demand