...Even using the inflation measure favored by the Bank of Japan, which includes energy but excludes fresh foods, Japanese prices rose 0.9 percent over the last year, which is still far below the 2 percent that the bank is aiming for.
Just as currency markets priced in higher inflation last winter and spring, inflation that is just now starting to materialize, if markets perceive that the government is taking the uptick in prices as victory, things could swing the other way just as quickly.
In other words, the record on Abenomics is so-far, so-good. There is a lot more reason for optimism that the world's third-largest economy has a true recovery underway than there was a year ago, and the most recent inflation data is an important part of that story. But nobody in Japan should be partying like it's 1989.
via DeLong:
Jennifer Thompson and Ben McLannahan: Japan inflation data offer fillip to Shinzo Abe: "Japan is on track to win its war on deflation with the latest consumer price inflation figures showing the highest reading since the country slipped into deflation 15 years ago. Core consumer price index inflation, which excludes fresh food but includes energy, hit 0.9 per cent in October, up from 0.7 per cent the previous month and in line with economists’ expectations. Excluding both fresh food and energy, it reached 0.3 per cent, the highest reading since 1998, indicating that rising energy costs alone were not the sole factor in inflationary pressure..."
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