TOKYO—Japan’s core consumer prices halted a 12-month run of declines in August, bolstered by higher energy costs and the impact of a tourism campaign, bringing some relief to central bank efforts to push inflation towards its elusive 2 percent target.
Nationwide prices were flat compared with a year earlier, due to a tug of war between rising energy costs and lower mobile phone fees, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed, while lodging prices surged a record 46.6 percent following a tourism discount campaign a year earlier.
