Japan's annual business-to-business service inflation accelerated for the second month to hit 2.3 per cent in March, data showed on Wednesday, suggesting firms continued to pass on rising labour costs thanks to prospects for sustained wage gains. The data underscores the Bank of Japan's view that rising service prices will replace cost-push inflation as a key driver of price gains, and help sustain inflation around its 2 per cent target. The year-on-year rise in the services producer price index, which measures what companies charge each other for services, followed a 2.2 per cent gain in February. Service price ... (full story)