Japan’s Tokyo CPI core (excluding food) dropped from 2.0% yoy to 1.8% yoy in October, slightly above market expectations of 1.7%. This marks the first time in five months that inflation has dipped below BoJ’s 2% target. Headline CPI also slowed from 2.1% yoy to 1.8% yoy.
The deceleration was largely driven by a slowdown in energy prices, with government subsidies for energy costs contributing to a 0.51 percentage point reduction in the overall index.
Despite this, underlying inflationary momentum ticked up, as core-core CPI (excluding food and energy) rose from 1.6% yoy to 1.8% yoy. Services prices also saw an uptick, increasing by 0.8% yoy compared to 0.6% yoy in the prior month.