Corporate Services Price Index up 0.5% year-on-year in April

May 27, 2008
By Ken Worsley

According to data released today by the Bank of Japan, the corporate services price index rose in April for the 21st consecutive month, showing a 0.1% gain against March and a 0.5% gain when compared to April 2007.

Driving the rise were increased transportation and industrial machinery leasing costs, as well as office space rental in the Tokyo area. In particular, ocean freight prices increased 14.1% on average, ship chartering services were 5.8% higher, and domestic air freight charges were up 5.7% against a year ago.

Mobile telecommunications services posted an 8.7% drop, showing the largest fall of any single service category.

Certainly, inflation in services costs is lagging behind that in the price of goods. In each of the four months reported thus far for 2008, the year-on-year change has been below 1.0 percent, while in each of the eight months preceding those, the increase had been over 1.0 percent, hitting 1.5% in three months.

From FY1998 to FY2005, Japan’s corporate services price index fell every year. It finally picked up by growing 0.2% in FY2006, and followed that with 1.1% growth in FY2007.

Filed Under Bank of Japan, Corporate Price Index, Economic Reports