Japan producer prices accelerate as oil costs rise

Detailed summary

The pace of increase for Japan's wholesale prices accelerated in October from the previous month. Rising costs of petroleum-related products pushed up the figure.

The pace of increase for Japan's wholesale prices accelerated in October from the previous month. Rising costs of petroleum-related products pushed up the figure.

Preliminary data from the Bank of Japan shows the Producer Price Index rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier.

That's 0.3 percentage points higher than the September number. The PPI gauges prices of goods traded between companies.

The cost of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products rose almost 16 percent.

The increase for chemical items such as ethylene was 15.5 percent. This was attributed to higher prices of the raw material naphtha.

Nonferrous metals jumped nearly 32 percent. Copper prices rose on growing global AI demand. Damage to an aluminum production base in the Middle East was another factor.

Central bank officials say crude oil prices have been on the uptrend since the summer. They note that many companies passed on their higher costs to prices last month.

Opening of the article, excerpted from NHK World. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.