Japan inflation data

National CPI y/y for April, +0.6% y/y

  • expected 0.6%, prior was 2.3%

(Note: The Bank of Japan has estimated that the sales tax hike (to 8 percent from 5 percent on April 1 2014) added 1.7 percentage points to the annual consumer inflation rate in April 2014, and 2.0 points from the following month. So subtract 2 from the PRIOR numbers)

National CPI y/y excluding Fresh Food for April, +0.3% y/y

  • expected 0.2%, prior was 2.2%

National CPI excluding Food, Energy y/y for April, +0.4% y/y

  • expected 0.3%, prior was 2.1%

-

Tokyo CPI y/y for May, +0.5% y/y

  • expected 0.5%, prior was 0.7%

(The Tokyo inflation data is for May, so the sales effect impact has rolled off - no need to subtract anything)

Tokyo CPI excluding Fresh Food y/y for May, +0.2% y/y

  • expected 0.2%, prior was 0.4%

Tokyo CPI excluding Food, Energy y/y for May, +0.1% y/y

  • expected 0.0%, prior was 0.0%

-

The CPI data is well, well short of the BOJ's 2% target ... but at least its moving overall in the right direction