Japan's wholesale prices grew 0.4 percent in May from a year earlier, marking the first rise in 17 months after gradually slowing decline, on the back of price rises for raw materials such as crude oil, the Bank of Japan said Thursday.
The index, whose losing streak began in January 2009 under the weight of the global financial crisis spawned by the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008, hit a record 8.5 percent drop in July and August last year before starting to recoup lost ground.
The prices, gauged by the central bank's corporate goods price index, stood at 103.2 against the 2005 base of 100, the BOJ said in a preliminary report.
The prices marked a 0.1 percent gain from April against the forecast of unchanged growth.
A BOJ official said that overseas production mainly in China is steadily expanding, but some prices of raw materials are falling in light of the Greek debt crisis and China's monetary tightening.
The official also said that it remains "difficult to tell" at this juncture whether the index will continue to post a year-on-year rise, making it uncertain whether Japan will see an end to deflation.
By product, prices for petroleum and coal products surged 30.1 percent and nonferrous metals climbed 18.0 percent, while transportation equipment dropped 2.8 percent.
Import prices jumped 13.3 percent in terms of the yen and gained 18.8 percent in terms of contract currencies.
Export prices fell 1.3 percent in yen terms and rose 3.1 percent on a contract currency basis.
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